Main and Rear Spar Carry-Thrus
I’ve been quite busy the last week with family and friends so I only had an hour here or there to make progress on the plane. Most of the work has been on attachment of the spar carry-thrus to the center fuselage. Those are attached now, so I think...
Resuming Fuselage Work
I had planned to spend Sunday doing the majority of the sealing work on the right fuel tank, but I discovered a crease in the leading edge of the skin. I spent a bunch of time trying to smooth it out, but I was not satisfied with the result....
Starboard Wing Nearly Ready for Closeout
I am at a good point to pause on building the starboard wing so that I can finish the fuel tank. I completed a quick task before switching gears though – I wanted to add some protection to the wire running through the lower stringer so that it doesn’t...
Right Nose Skin
I didn’t do a lot last night, partially because I had to make a run to the dump to get rid of the unwanted pieces of the fuselage shipping container. After a late dinner, I folded over the nose skin and clecoed it in place. I used a framing...
Landing Light Wiring
I continued some of the electrical work for the starboard wing, securing wiring and adding electrical connectors for the lights. I also decided it was time to get rid of the shipping crate for the fuselage kit. The first crates I received last year were assembled using screws, which...
Second Wing Build Progress
This past weekend I completed several tasks on the starboard wing. The most time-consuming task was aligning the bottom skins onto the spars – the holes didn’t line up very well, and I had trouble getting the inner skin to lay flat on my first 2 attempts. Here’s what...
Right Wing Ribs Riveted
After confirming that the wing skins look ok when clecoed down, I spent a few hours securing the ribs in place. I was able to do a few things better than on the other wing – for example, I figured out that it was much easier to install the...
WG-SKN-005 Fit
After taking some measurements, I found out why the outboard upper skin doesn’t fit will. The pitch of the holes drilled in the skin is just a little bit off compared to the pitch of the holes drilled into the rear spar – over the length of 43 holes,...
Upper Wing Skin Fit Check
After flipping the wing back to normal, I started clecoing down the top skins. The inboard skin seems to fit fine, but the outboard skin doesn’t look right – there are ripples when I cleco it down. I had similar fit issues with the other wing, so I’ll have...
Skin Fit Check
After working on the ribs so that their flanges were as flush as possible, it’s time to check with skins on and make sure they lie flat. I flipped the wing over and temporarily attached bottom skins, next I’ll flip again to do the top skins....