Category: Wings

Wing Top Skin – Part 4

Brian 0 Comment Top Skins

Fairly short update, even if it was a lot of work. After prepping the wing and tops skins, started to rivet everything together. Started working with my wife using my new extended back rivet set. This left the skin looking great, but I kept having some rivets with smeared shop heads.

I even went and purchased a double-offset backrivet set, however I was even having some issues with that. I gave it a good try and it seemed to be somewhat working, but in the end I decided that just having my buddy and wife use the rivet gun and I control the bucking bar was much faster and easier to control. (Even if it did mark up the skins a little).

After each rivet session, I would go back the next day and re-check all the rivets with a fresh set of eyes. I would always find some marginal rivets that needed another hit with the bucking bar, or possibly a few that just needed to be drilled out. No biggie and better to do it now rather than when the wings are on the airplane! (Blue tape marks where I need to touch something up) [inpost_fancy thumb_width=”200″ thumb_height=”200″ post_id=”803″ thumb_margin_left=”0″ thumb_margin_bottom=”0″ thumb_border_radius=”2″ thumb_shadow=”0 1px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2)” id=”” random=”0″ group=”0″ border=”” show_in_popup=”0″ album_cover=”” album_cover_width=”200″ album_cover_height=”200″ popup_width=”800″ popup_max_height=”600″ popup_title=”Gallery” type=”fancy”][/inpost_fancy]

Once all the rivets were in, I then riveted on the nutplates at the wing root, followed by the aileron bracket at the wing tip. Then with a little help from the wife I moved the wing back to the cradle. I’ll need to finish up the leading edge light lens for the left wing, then get some assistance to rivet the leading edges to the wings to make sure I have room for the fuse arrival.

Wing Top Skin – Part 3

Brian 0 Comment Top Skins

Finally jumping back to finish off the left wing. With a little assistance from my wife, we turn and move the wing to my workbench to begin prepping the skins for final assembly.

After deburring both the wing skins, I begin to deburr all the ribs. I ended up getting one of the “in and out” deburring tools online and used it for a good section of the wings. I’ll admit that it did a decent job without taking too much material off. I may use this for more of the build going forward.

I then move the wing so I can install the 4 rivets that I didn’t install earlier between the spar and ribs. I spoke about this in the previous post regarding the top skins as the plans were not clear on these rivets.

Next, I started to dimple the ribs, J-stiffeners, and the wing skins. Using the sawhorses, some 2×4 and felt mats allowed me to quickly get through the dimple process without any drama. I’m actually starting to get better working in the somewhat limited space I have.

I then mount the skins, J-channel, and wing-walk stiffeners onto the wings. Next I have to verify my countersink cutter is properly adjusted so I can countersink all the holes common with the wing-walk stiffeners. This makes a complete mess and lots of aluminum shavings!

Finally I take the time to mark anything longer than a 3.5 rivet on the skin so things will go faster once I get an assistant to help me rivet. I’m looking forward to using my new back-rivet sets to see if I get any better results vs the last time.

Wingtips – Flyleds – Part 1

Brian 0 Comment Wing Tip

With cold weather outside limiting my ability to prime parts, I continue to find things I can get done to make forward progress. For about a month I have been wanting to build my Flyleds works kit but it didn’t make sense to install the electronics until the boards were sanded to their final shape.

With the wing tips moved out of storage, I started with marking the cutout shape based on the template provided by Flyleds. I then quickly cut out the excess material with my multi-tool (This is the perfect tool for cutting fiberglass!). With the basic shape cut out, I install the boards and mark where I need to trim the circuit board / wingtip so everything fits. Initially I manually start sanding as I didn’t want to break the circuitboard on my belt-sander, but then realized I was just making my life difficult for myself. A Beltsander is the perfect way to quickly trim the Flyleds.

Off-camera I solder on all the components and test that everything lights up as expected (using a 9v battery). With those test completed, I bring the board back out again and mark where the wing-tip needs additional trimming due to the heatsinks. I then go to do the same on the other wing-tip.

Only difference is the other wing-tip had some voids under the gelcoat that needed a little touch-up. I sanded everything around the void to make sure I had a good bonding surface and found the void was even bigger than I first realized. No big deal. I had some Evercoat skim-coat on-hand and quickly mixed up a batch, applied it and used a scraper to help give it a rough shape. Came back after dinner and it was ready to sand / clean up. I then just did the same process as the other wingtip. Only thing left to do is drill the holes for the nutplates to mount the FlyLeds to the wing-tip and bench-test everything.

Ailerons – Part 1

Brian 0 Comment Ailerons

Starting section 21 I start to read through the instructions and pull the parts from storage. The language in section 21 starts to change from how the steps are defined in previous chapters a bit so I wanted to mention how I approached it.

Typically you see instructions to flute ribs, cleco together, match drill, then deburr, dimple and if desired prime. For the ailerons, instructions start with flue, final-drill, and dimple before you assemble anything. As I typically dimple after I prime parts, I’m having to deviate from the order of operation in the plans just a bit. (Not that this is a bad thing as I go on to explain).

Since I want to prime parts, then dimple, I’m “skipping” over the areas where I’m asked to dimple or rivet and assembling all the parts using clecos to ensure I can match/final-drill where necessary and that I have all the parts properly marked / labeled. I basically ended up building the whole aileron using clecos. *Note: cutting, sanding, and deburring all the stiffeners was a bit of a process!

I’m not sure if the change from match drilling to “final-drill” is due to better tolerances in the MFG processes for the skin and stiffeners, but I decided to match drill and label all parts.

With all the ailerons assembled with clecos, match drilled and deburred, now I just have to wait for a decent day to prime before I can start begin final assembly.

Fuel Tank – Part 5

Brian 2 Comments Fuel Tanks

Ok, so I’m officially sick and tired of proseal. With that said, I’m walking away from it for a few months before I finish up the fuel tanks.

With that said, I now have two mostly completed fuel tanks and once all the pro-seal cures, I can begin leak testing. I’m going to give the tanks a few months so that I have warmer weather before I start leak testing. (Honestly that is an excuse so I don’t have to mix any proseal for a bit).

I did my best to film the whole process this time as it takes MULTIPLE sessions to get this done. I bounced back and forth between wet-setting things in one session and allowing the proseal to set with the ribs fully clecoed in place. Also I had one LUCKY mistake when back-riveting the stiffeners. I did not mark or bend the skin, but drove the rivet into my table as I missed the backing plate.

I also started to rivet the ribs in the wrong order, but caught myself and only had to clean up a little proseal. Not a huge deal and I’m sure if I did install that rib first it would have been fine.

Lastly I realized I installed the fuel vent line incorrectly on my right tank. I missed there are two sets of holes that you can use to run the fuel vent line. The one closest to the nose is the correct one and makes life so much easier. The other set of holes is for the fuel to get to the fuel pickup. I have a feeling I’ll need to “fix” my right wing before I seal it up. (will also need to muck with my fuel float again. GROAN!). Not an impossible fix but have to think it though. EDIT: no dummy, fuel vent is on the top of the wing. I’ll still have to look to see if there is any good reason to re-route the vent line before I seal up the tank. Currently leaning towards leaving it alone.

I’m also really happy with my ductless mini-split system. With almost 8″ of snow outside I was still able to finish up my fuel tank in a t-shirt and be quite comfortable. Anyway, now it’s time to clean up the shop and get the flaps and ailerons before the fuselage shows up!