This one takes the cake for the most fun and most “it looks like an airplane is being built” step so far. Basically, the section consisted of attaching the rear empennage, built well over a year ago, to the forward section of the fuselage just completed. I had a pilot buddy help with this because the alignment of the two section was a bit tricky. But kudos to Vans design work because all the holes aligned perfectly.

The first step was installing the baggage area bulkheads to the aft empennage.

Not really a lot to show here because I was busy assembling and not taking pics. But you can see here the beginnings of the mating process next to the step ladder.

A few hundred rivets were used to attach the two sections but work was also required inside to rivet the baggage ribs along the bottom to the baggage bulkheads previously installed. This was somewhat awkward resulting in temporarily installing the baggage floor skins and then lying on pillows to get some of these rivets.

The end result was the first official climbing inside and making some airplane noises. This is a big step completed.