11/7/2006
WINGS COMPLETE!
Well, it finally happened again...Except for the wingtips, I'm out of parts to work on for the wings. They are complete sans tips and a couple of wires to run for the nav lights.
I started the evening by riveting the flap hinge to the bottom skin. Easy enough with the pneu squeezer. Then I cut the pin to length and bent the tabs, and installed the flaps.
You can see in the shot below that the alignment came out perfect with the ailerons in their neutral position. Both came out this way. The gap is 1/4" from front to back.
Here's a close-up of the hinge pin where it is split in the middle for access.
Next, I installed the long push-pull tubes in each wing. I was going to wait on this, but it doesn't really add all that much length to the wings-maybe 10" or so-and I'll be storing the wings elsewhere in a few weeks, so they won't bet taking up the space in the garage. I wrapped the inboard ends in bubble wrap so they don't rest on the rib lightening holes.
Then I installed the three access covers on each wing. I only put three screws in the ones that cover the controls, since I'll have to get in there to torque the nuts. The others have all their screws in place, but not torque'd.
Since I pulled the landing light wires out to use better wire, I went ahead and ran the aviation wire for those, and also ran the strobe wires in each wing.
I still have the wingtips to install, and work on the nav and strobe lights, so I will still have stuff to work on while I wait for my fuselage to arrive. Speaking of the fuselage, I'll be ordering it next week, so I will have a good two months or so to wait. Plenty of time to work on my tips and LED nav lights, and do some things to the boat that I've wanted to work on. Brit has a two month break from teaching and taking doggie classes, so it works out perfect!
I declare...WINGS COMPLETE!! (For the most part...)
3.0 hours