Wings Log 
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 February 3, 2021

 Project Log

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Wings
The wings are fairly straight forward although somewhat tedious. They consist of two spars. A main spar that is pre-assembled and a smaller rear spar that must be assembled by the builder. There are several main ribs that install between the main and rear spar and these are covered with four skins, two top skins and two bottom skins. The leading edge of the wing is made up of an outboard leading edge assembly of ribs and a curved skin and the inboard leading edges are the 21 gal fuel tanks.

June 26, 2001 - 3.5 hours
Received the wing kit today. Shannon and I inventoried all the parts and I stored them away.

Hard to believe that this is going to turn into two wings. This is going to be fun!!!

July 15, 2001 - 1 hours
Cleaned up the garage and got the main wing spars out to get started on the wings.

The main spars are just itching to become two wings.

July 20, 2001 - 2.5 hours
Drilled and countersunk all the holes for the tank skin attach platenuts. Started attaching the platenuts and countersinking the screw hole.

July 21, 2001 - 2.5 hours
Finished attaching the tank skin attach platenuts on the main wing spars.

That was a lot of platenuts.

July 22, 2001 - 5 hours
Attached all the platenuts for the wing inspection covers on the main wing spars. Fabricated the little spacers that go behind the tie downs and started working on drilling the tie downs to the wing spar.

July 24, 2001 - 3 hours
Finished the tie down assemblies on the main spars and started deburring the parts of the rear spars.

Tie down assembly bolted to the main wing spar. The platenuts are for bolting the aileron bellcrank brackets to the other side.

Aileron bellcrank brackets on the rear side of the main wing spar.

July 26, 2001 - 2 hours
Deburring the parts of the rear wing spars

July 28, 2001 - 6 hours
Finished deburring the parts for both rear wing spars. Primed the spars and assembled them.

Rear spar with the reinforcement plates attached. The dark color of the spar is the Sherwin Williams P60-G2 primer. I assume that is what it is supposed to look like?

Close up of the inboard reinforcement plates of the rear spar. The missing rivets are where ribs and the flap brace will be attached.

July 30, 2001 - 1.5 hours
Deburring wing ribs

July 31, 2001 - 3 hours
Deburring wing ribs

August 1, 2001 - 1.5 hours
Deburring wing ribs

August 2, 2001 - 1 hours
Deburring wing ribs

August 4, 2001 - 7 hours
Deburring wing ribs

August 5, 2001 - 5 hours
Finished deburring wing ribs and started fluting / straightening wing ribs

August 6, 2001 - 1.5 hours
Fluting and straightening wing ribs

August 7, 2001 - 1.5 hours
Finished fluting and straightening the wing ribs.

August 9, 2001 - 2 hours
Modified the H-Jig for use in holding the wings. Clecoed the main ribs to the main and rear spars of the left wing.

Bracket that will hold the main spar

Main ribs clecoed to the main and rear spar of the left wing. Finally something that looks like it might be part of a wing.

August 11, 2001 - 2 hours
Drilled the ribs and spars of the left wing.

August 12, 2001 - 3 hours
Clecoed and drilled all the ribs and spars of the right wing and then deburred all the ribs and spars. Also started building the little wooden fuel tank craddle.

August 14, 2001 - 1.5 hours
Finished the leading edge / fuel tank craddle. Started drilling the holes in the main ribs for the electrical conduit

This is the cradle where the leading edges and the fuel tanks will be built. It ain't pretty but it don't fly either.

August 15, 2001 - 2.5 hours
Finished drilling all the holes for the conduit. Deburred the holes in the left wing parts and prepared the left wing parts for priming.

August 17, 2001 - 1 hours
Primed the left wing ribs.

August 18, 2001 - 5 hours
Riveted the main ribs to the main and rear spars. Shannon built the wing storage craddle.

August 19, 2001 - 6 hours
Mounted the left wing skeleton in the stand. Clecoed and drilled all of the main skins. Clecoed the leading edge skin to the ribs and spar.

This is the bracket where the outboard end of the wing sits. Don't copy it! It doesn't work as it looks here. See below.

Wing skeleton mounted to the stand.

Top main skins clecoed to the left wing.

Bottom main skins clecoed to the wing.

Ooops. That ain't gonna work. The rib should be flush with the end of the spar but the skin is extended past the rib for the wing tip mounting and it is interfering with the bracket.

A little drimmel action and the problem is solved. Remember if it don't fly it ain't gotta be pretty.

Wow! It's starting to look like it might be part of an airplane. Now off to read the manual and go to bed.

August 20, 2001 - 1 hours
Installed the W-423 joint plate.

This is the W-423 tank attach piece. This is where the outboard side of the tank skin will attach.

September 24, 2001 - 1.75 hours
Drilled (I thought I already did that) deburred, and dimpled the leading edge skin.

September 25, 2001 - 1.75 hours
Deburring and dimpling wing skins and ribs.

September 30, 2001 - 3 hours
Deburring and dimpling wing skins and ribs.

October 4, 2001 - 1.5 hours
Primed the wing skins and countersunk most of the little holes in the wing spar.

October 6, 2001 - 4 hours
Finished countersinking the spar. Riveted the leading edge skin to the ribs and started installing the Duckworks landing light in the leading edge.

Taped the template on the leading edge to mark the hole cuttout for the Duckworks landing light.

Finished landing light cuttout.

October 7, 2001 - 2 hours
Got the mounting plate built and trimmed the plexi for the Duckworks light in the left wing.

Finished lense mounting plate.

October 9, 2001 - 2.5 hours
Finished the landing light installation in the left leading edge.

Finished Duckworks landing light installation.

Leading edge of the left wing finished and ready to go on the spar.

October 11, 2001 - 1.5 hours
Tapped the tie down bracket and drilled the little hole in the skin for the tie down. Started riveting the leading edge assembly to the spar.

October 13, 2001 - 3 hours
Finished riveting the leading edge assembly to the left wing.

Finished leading edge assembly installed on the left wing.

October 17, 2001 - 1 hours
Started riveting on the top wing skins

October 18, 2001 - 1.5 hours
Still riveting top skins on

October 19, 2001 - 1.3 hours
Finished riveting the top skins and took the left wing out of the jig and into the craddle.

Left wing out of the jig and in the craddle.

This is what the top of the wing looks like. The wing craddle was built by my wife, Shannon. Looks pretty good and it fits like a glove. Build it per the plans from Van and it works great.

October 20, 2001 - 4 hours
Installed the aileron bellcrank in the left wing. Cleaned up the shop and started preparing the ribs for the right wing for priming.

Close up of the aileron bellcrank

October 26, 2001 - 2.5 hours
Primed all the right wing ribs.

October 26, 2001 - 3 hours
Assembled the right wing skeleton and hung it on the jig.

October 28, 2001 - 6 hours
Clecoed and drilled all of the main wing skins top and bottom as well as the leading edge skin. Time to start on the other tank. :-(

November 19, 2001 - 2 hours
Cleaned up a little bit and worked on the leading edge parts.

November 20, 2001 - 2.5 hours
Removed the top skins from the skeleton and deburred both of them as well as the leading edge skin. Riveted the platenuts to the tank attach plate.

November 21, 2001 - 2.5 hours
Dimpled the leading edge skin and both top skins, and got everything ready to prime.

November 23, 2001 - 9 hours
Primed all the right wing skins, deburred the main ribs, riveted the leading edge together and almost finished installing the Duck Works landing/taxi light into the leading edge.

November 24, 2001 - 6 hours
Finished the Duck Works light installation and countersunk all the little holes in the spar where the skin dimples sit. Also rivted the leading edge skin to the spar.

November 29, 2001 - 1.75 hours
Finished installing the leading edge to the right wing by riveting the ribs to the spar (it took until tonight because I waited for John to give me a hand). Installed the fuel tank on the wing as well.

December 2, 2001 - 5 hours
Riveted the top skins on. I didn't back rivet these and they seemed to turn out better. I had trouble keeping the rivets straight with the backrivetter. I also took the wing out of the jig! Now I can take down these two posts.

Two wings out of the jig and into the craddle!

December 6, 2001 - 2.2 hours
Attached the aileron hinges and aileron gap seal to the left wing, started on the flap brace.

December 8, 2001 - 4 hours
Finished installing both sets of aileron hinges, aileron gap seals and flap braces.

Outboard aileron hinge of the right wing.

Another view of the outboard aileron hinge.

Inboard aileron hinge

Aileron gap seal installed on the right wing.

Flap brace riveted to the rear spar of the right wing.

December 9, 2001 - 1 hours
Installed the aileron belcrank in the right wing.

December 16, 2001 - 1 hours
Installed the nylon corrugated wiring conduit in the wings.

Both wiring conduits installed in the left wing. I put two in to separate RF signals from lighting signals.

This shows what the conduit look like protruding through the outboard rib.

I simply enlarged the aft tooling holes to locate the wiring conduit. It's hard to tell from this photo but there is about an inch of clearance between the conduit and the push rod.

December 2, 2002 - 0.5 hours
Made a pitot tube out of some thin walled stainless tubing from work and started laying out the placement for it on the wing.

December 4, 2002 - 1.5 hours
Installed the Pitot tube in the left wing and changed the little washers out that go between the bushing halves of the flap center bushing. I also ran the flap motor back and forth several times to make sure that my safety wire installation wouldn't get in a bind.

Pitot tube detail with the aileron bellcrank

Another view of the pitot tube

December 9, 2002 - 1.5 hours
Mounted the Tru Trak autopilot servo in the right wing.

December 12, 2002 - 1 hours
Finished mounting the autopilot servo in the right wing.

Tru-Trak autopilot servo installed in the right wing

Another shot of the Tru-Trak autopilot servo

December 14, 2002 - 7 hours
Finished all the little spacers for all of the aileron push tubes. Installed the AOA Sport probes in the right wing, and put a right angle fitting on the pitot tubing where it exits the wing.

This is the Proprietary Software Systems AOA port on the top of the wing.

This is the PSS AOA port on the bottom of the wing.

I installed a right angle bulkhead fitting on the root end of the wing. The blue RTV is left over from pressure testing the tubing. (Addendum: The fitting needs to point down not aft. It interferes with the aileron pushrod if it points aft and besides the hole where it enters the fuselage is below this point.)

December 22, 2002 - 2 hours
Pressure tested the AOA ports, did a little rewiring on the position lights in the wing tip.

January 11, 2003 - 4 hours
Deburred and dimpled the bottom wing skins and prepared them for priming.

January 12, 2003 - 3 hours
Primed the wing skins, cleaned up the shop a bit. Removed the ailerons from the wings and set the right wing on the table getting ready to install the bottom skins.

January 19, 2003 - 3 hours
Aligned and drilled the flap hinge to the right wing. Started riveting the bottom skins to the right wing.

January 20, 2003 - 1 hours
More riveting of the bottom skins.

January 22, 2003 - 1.5 hours
More riveting of the bottom wing skins.

January 25, 2003 - 2 hours
Still riveting the bottom skins on the right wing.

January 26, 2003 - 3.5 hours
Finished riveting the bottom skin on the right wing. Moved the left wing over to the bench and drilled the flap hinge to the flap brace.

The right wing is finally finished. All it needs now is a few bolts and some paint.

This is a bad picture of the flap hinge pin securing mechanism. Just a couple of nylon tie wraps.

January 27, 2003 - 1.25 hours
Finished drilling and countersinking the flap hinge brace and finished preparing the bottom skins for riveting onto the left wing.

January 29, 2003 - 2 hours
Started riveting the bottom skins on the left wing.

January 30, 2003 - 0.5 hours
A few more rivets go in the bottom of the left wing

February 1, 2003 - 1.5 hours
More rivets into the left bottom skins

February 2, 2003 - 3.5 hours
Finished riveting the wing skins. The wings are now ready to go on the fuse. Also turned the fuselage around in the garage and rearranged things so that I'll have room to attach the wings. Started getting the tail ready to mount.

June 12, 2005 - 4 hours
I installed all the nutplates on the wings for the inspection covers and the fuselage fairing.

Nutplates on the wing inspection covers

Nutplates on the inboard edge of the wing skins for the wing / fuselage fairing


Disclaimer:
This web site and the infomation contained within it are for entertainment purposes only. The opinions expressed on construction techniques are my opinions only and should not be confused with proper construction techniques. There is undoubtedly more than one way to build an airplane and some methods that I use may or may not work in any given circumstance. If there is any question please call the kit manufacturer. I love to help but I am not responsible for the misuse of any information contained on this web site.

 February 3, 2021
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