Category: Wings

I checked and torqued all of the fasteners on the left wing spar then applied torque seal to all of them. After I cleaned up the shop so that I could layout some more sheet aluminum for cutting.

I drew out both doublers back to back on a sheet of .032 6061-T6. I drew the left doubler second so that the wing walk could be added to the doubler. I continued to cut out both doublers.

I completed the work on the tip ribs today. I started by filing the slots in the ribs. Next, I used a sanding block to knock the burrs off the outside of the rib and then I used scotchbrite to finish the outside. I used some 220 grit sandpaper around a long drill bit to clean up the inside edges of the slot and the same sandpaper to clean up the burrs on the inside of the rib. I finished up the slots using scotchbrite.

More rework of th tip ribs tonight. Completed all of the ribs for the left wing except for the root rib as it is still bolted to the spar.

I noticed that I was getting a bump in the leading edge from the tip ribs. After doing a bit of research I decided to relieve the the ribs at the tip just under the edge of the flange. I drilled 3/16" hole and then trimed back a slot to each hole. This frees up the flange to move a bit and shouldn’t create the bump in the leading edge. I’ll probably make a new leading edge skin as well.

I transfered all of the #40 holes in the leading edge of the top rear wing skin into the top of the spar. With this done, I was ready to start fitting the leading edge wing skin. I slipped the leading edge skin under the rear skin at the top of the spar and proceeded to line things up left to right on the spar and front to back. I did all of this with the wing sitting horizontal on the bench resting on the bottom clecos and with the wing tip ribs hanging off the edge of the bench. With the skin fitted, I drilled the pilot holes along the spar using the holes previously drilled as a guide. After drilling the the pilot holes into the spar I started on the pilot holes in the ribs. When I completed the holes in the ribs I had my wife give me a hand flipping the wing over. I then used some cargo straps to pull the tip skin into place. With the leading edge skin in place I started to drill the pilot holes into the lower side of the tip ribs. I finished all of the holes except the ones into the spar on the bottom side of the wing.

I had my son give me a hand and we flipped the wing around so that it was right side up with the leading edge hanging off the bench. Next, I started to line up the leading edge skin. In order to get started on the leading edge I realized that I needed to drill the #40 pilot holes into the spar so I started this process.

Tonight I continued transfering the #40 holes in the lower left wing skin to the rear spar. After finishing the holes I layed the wing down to start fitting the leading edge wing skin.

Today I continued working on the top left wing skin, transfering the #40 holes to the ribs and rear spar.

I worked today at transfering the holes in the wing skins to the ribs and rear spar. I began with the top left wing skin and after finishing this I setup for the bottom left wing skin.