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January 4, 2005:
The wing kit arrived today. It was snowing outside and the
driveway was slick but the driver and I still managed to get the crates
into my workshop. After the driver and I got the crates out of the
truck, we used a couple of flat furniture dollies to roll the crates
into the shop.
Here are the crates. They are pretty sturdy. I did not detect any external damage. Good job Roadway Express! |
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This is the main spar and longeron crate with the lid removed. Van's does a good job making use of every nook and cranny. |
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Here is the skins crate. It too was
well packed.
I spent about 2 hours unpacking and taking inventory, but I will not count this toward my build time. No parts were missing.
Now I just need to find a place to store all this stuff! I plan to complete the empennage before I begin the wing construction, so stay tuned for progress. |
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February 4, 2005: (2.0 hrs.) These are the main wing spars. Gorgeous aren't they? They come anodized this way from the factory. The first thing that needs to be done for the wing construction is to attach all the tank and access door nut-plates to the spars. 144 of them to be exact. the nut-plates get flush riveted to the underside of the spar flange to allow the skins to fit snuggly on top of the spar flange. The first order of business is to counter sink all the holes for the nut plates (that is two rivet attach holes and 1 screw hole for each nut plate!) |
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Because the center nut-plate hole needs to be countersunk deep enough allow the skin dimpled for a #8 screw to sit flush, the countersink pilot will wander as it exits the spar material. This causes the countersunk hold to be oblong. Not a good thing. I decided to use a technique many other builders have deployed to solve this problem. I took a piece of 1/8" aluminum and made a #30 pilot hole that the counter sink can extend into. This aluminum strip gets cleco'd on either side of the center nut-plat hole to be countersunk (of course you need to first match drill these holes). This lines everything up nicely. |
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Because there is not enough room between the cleco's for the micro-stop countersink, the aluminum plate needs to be side clamped in place and the cleco's then removed. |
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Here the cleco's are removed and we are ready to countersink the center hole of the nut plate. |
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Here you can see the drill with the
micro-stop countersink doing its work. Note the masking tape
covering the gap behind the spar flange to keep all the shavings out.
Once this hole is countersunk, the assembly is removed and then cleco'd in place for the next nut plate. The same pilot and match drilled holes in the aluminum plate can be used for all the nut plate attach points. (The first few inboard nut-plates sit at an opposing angle to each other... for these, you need to create another set of match drilled holes plus pilot hole in the aluminum plate) |
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Here a test strip that I used to check that a #80 dimpled skin would sit flush in the countersunk hole. Once you get the right depth in the micro-stop countersink, you should not need to adjust it again. |
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After all the center nut-plate holes are
countersunk, the rivet attach holes need to be counter sunk. These
are easier because you do not need to use the tedious method of jigging
for each hole. Just use a #40 pilot countersink making it just
deep enough a AN426AD3 rivet to sit flush. There are three areas on the bottom of both spars that need to be countersunk for nut-plates that are used to attach one edge of the wing access plates. These nut-plates get counter sunk just like the tank attach nut plates except that the center hole is for a #6 dimple and not a #8.
Here both spars have been countersunk |