The picture does most of the explaining. The right wing was riveted together first. In all, it took about 2.5 hours to get all 100+ rivets set. Care is needed to avoid rivets that should hold until subassemblies are attached. Care is also needed, to ensure rivets go in the “right” way. I did not […]

Several days of scrubbing the ribs had me questioning my commitment to priming the airframe. Yesterday, I completed the scrubbing and mixed up a HUGE batch of primer. About an hour later, viola! I accidentally primed the leading edge ribs at the same time. This is jumping ahead a bit, but I think it will […]

First thing today was to finally decide on a location to put my wiring conduit. I kept reading blogs and posts but then stumbled upon this: That took the guess work out of it, and I went with their recommendation. After punching holes in all the ribs… All the hard work paid off today, just […]

The last three-four days has been nothing but deburring ribs. I finally finished late this evening, with around 10 hours of deburring and related activities. Next up is straightening the flanges, and fluting the ribs. I’m hopeful these steps are a little quicker, because I’d love to get this wing mocked up with some clecos. […]

Well apologies for the jump-to-completion here on the rear spars. I will get better at documents. Luckily, there is plenty of footage of these pieces and video is forthcoming. The construction was very familiar, and a welcomed return to aircraft building for me. I forgot how much I had missed these processes while on my […]

Wing tiedowns are mounted. These pieces took a bit. Between past fabrication, and then priming, assembly, and attaching–I’m like a week deep on these. Next up is rear spars, and those should be exciting.

After the spar was working on the wing tiedown hardware. Among the first things to do was to fabricate some spacers. The 1″ holes proved difficult to drill, and took a few trips to different hardware stores. The HF circle cutter is useless. Two different hole saws wouldn’t provide the clean cuts I wanted. Finally, […]

Commence the construction. We’re building! First thing is to add a number of nutplates to the spar for fuel tank attachment points. That number is big; I believe there are over a hundred nut plates here if memory serves. Two countersink sizes (-3 rivet, and #8 screw), so having two countersink cages has again paid […]

The inventory continues, now with the small hardware bits. This whole process has all been pretty fun. There are items I can’t wait to get to work with. There are also some that have me concerned. The amount and size of ribs is a bit staggering. I should have the parts all put away today. […]

Inventory continues as does creating the wing stand and cradle (final steps). All parts are packaged nice, the difficulty is finding room in the messy garage. I will soon be able to gut the garage, clean up scrap wood, and get the pieces on the shelf…