Sunday, November 19, 2017

Wing: stall warning switch installation

They have you create the switch assembly, them attach it to a rib.  Then put the skin on (temporarily), so that you can adjust the vane of the switch.


Afterwards, when I put the bottom skins on for real, the switch still worked exactly as it did in this video.




Saturday, November 18, 2017

Wing: Left wing skeleton complete

Note that the grommet on the inboard-most rib was initially put in backwards.  It was obvious later when I did the wiring.


I did end up putting the extra rivets in that I found while doing this walkthrough.





Here we see two rear ribs which apparently did not get washed well after etching.  I was unsure how much acid corrosion had or will happen in the future,  so I ordered replacements over the winter and finally installed them when I began work again in May 2018.



Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Wings: attaching the ribs (major mess up)

Seemed like a simple thing to do..  The rear ribs were ALL attached incorrectly!

Pay close attention to which side of the flanges you are attaching the ribs to!!!



I had to drill out all of the rear ribs and re-attach them.  It wasnt difficult, but there were so many rivets that needed to be drilled!

Sunday, November 12, 2017

Wings: ribs

Ribs ribs ribs.

Fluted all of them.. tried to do many gentle flutes in the center of the ribs,  rather than just a couple big flutes.

Etched and primed all the ribs.  Also just sprayed some primer on the main spar.  I did not prepare it in any way.  If the primer sticks, it sticks.. if not.. then .. it'll just flake off.

As it turned out (me from the future), there were some spots on the left main spar that flaked off over the winter.   Most of these spots were the pre-riveted bare-aluminum flanges.  I tried to rough them up a bit and spray a little more primer.  I doubt it will stick.


Saturday, November 11, 2017

Wings - rear spars

Hello from the future again..  Here is a walkthrough of the rear wing spars.  A short video, just to document what it looks like.


The hinges were a pain.  The problem was that you have to press-fit a bearing into a piece of aluminum.  This was eventually accomplished with a C-clamp, and a socket that was big enough to press only on the material and not the bearing.

I'm not sure exactly why, but two rivets of the hinge are flush, and one isn't.


Saturday, November 4, 2017

Wings - stub spar (forward spar)

The forward spar was fun and easy to work on because the materials were thicker aluminium.

Here we see the finished product and a walk-through of all the countersunk holes I drilled.


Wednesday, November 1, 2017

WINGS ACROSS NJ - Main spars

With the tailkit done.. mostly..  I've moved onto the wings..

In the wings section, there are a few main sections/categories:


  1. Main spar preparation
  2. Stub spar (forward) preparation
  3. Rear spar preparation
  4. Rib preparation
  5. Rib attachment
  6. Forward/Read spar attachment
  7. Stall warning switch fitting
  8. Bottom skins
  9. Top skins

(the next videos are short clips)


Here we are looking at the left spar and reviewing the directions.


Right spar, reviewing directions:


More review:


And of the right spar:



Wings: Left bottom skin (all of them)

It so purdy!  This actually wasn't as much work as I thought it would be.  the bottom skin went on quickly.  I used the method of se...