Jan. 3, 2002  0.0 hours

I'm patiently (well really, impatiently) waiting on the wings. They are scheduled to ship week of 14th.  I hope it is the 14th and not the 19th :-). I'm working a little with the fiberglass tips of the elevator and HS.  I don't think that I'll do the rudder and VS as I'm not sure of where an antenna might end up.  I drilled out a couple of rivets in the HS that didn't look as good the second time around and replaced them.

I'm spending  time researching the gadgetry. (avionics, engine instrumentation, wiring, antennas, etc.)  These new EFIS systems are really intriguing but I don't know if I want to invest that much in the panel. 

I'm also trying to clean up the work area, add a little more organization and wondering if I can re-arrange to gain a little more working area.

Jan. 19, 2002

Wings shipped from Vans on Thursday. They should be here late next week.  So maybe back to building by next weekend.

Jan 23, 2002

Wings arrived around lunch today.  All looks good.  Three or four pieces backordered and I received 2 W-701R and zero W-701L wing skin.  I'll call and see what I need to do with this.  I haven't looked at the plans yet to see if there really is difference.

Ok, trying to get organized again on the web publishing.  Here's the long awaited boxes from Van's.    These seem worse than they really are.  The driver and I were able to handle these without any problem.  Of course, I'm going to have to carry them to the basement a piece at a time.  (sorry for the poor pictures.  I don't know what the deal is but I'll check it in the future.) Here's the gold plated :-) main spars.    and here is all the wing and tank ribs safely stored away..     Most of the skins are on the rolling shelf on the bottom.  I hung the long aluminum parts from the ceiling using plastic ties.  This worked out great without having to make some more shelves.  Managed to find a place for most things. 

Jan 25, 2002  3 hours.

Jumped in with both feet once getting started back.  The first thing to accomplish is to countersink all the holes for the tank platenuts.  Instead of riveting the platenuts and then countersinking the #8 screw holes, I did what others have done and made a plate to stabilize the pilot tip of the countersink bit.  This worked out extremely well. I just used a piece of aluminum angle to make the jig.   Not much to say except there are a lot of platenuts to drill and countersink.  

Jan 26, 2002 8 hours

Saturday was a continuation of Friday night.  148 platenuts installed on both main spars.       After getting all the platenuts installed, I decided to continue on and fabricate the tie down brackets.  I was extremely fortunate that the one tap that I brought from Alabama was a 3/8 by 16 so I was able to tap the tie down bracket.  I made the spacers and countersunk the required holes.  I did drill out the center of the spacers after taking this picture.  There is no apparent reason to drill it out except for reducing weight.  The tie downs attached to both spars.     Both spars with all the plate nuts, the bell crank attach brackets and the tie downs.  

Jan 27, 2002   2 hours

I spent a couple hours this afternoon getting the rear spar ready.  The parts deburred and edge polished.    I'm working both the left and right spars at the same time.  This will reduce set up time.  Once you get a countersink or other tool set, you can use it on both.

Having a blast!!

Jan 28, 2002   2 hours

Deburred and primed rear wing spars and associated parts.

Jan 29, 2002  3 hours

Riveted the rear spar's . You can see that I marked all over the rear spars so I could keep everything oriented correctly. The rivets that are missing will be put in later.  After getting the rear spars assembled, I spent about an hour starting to deburr  the flanges of the wing ribs .

Jan 30, 2002  2.5 hours

Finished deburring and polishing the wing rib flanges and litening holes. The pneumatic die grinder with a scotch-brite wheel makes this go pretty fast.  Started squaring the rib flanges and fluting the ribs. It's snowing outside. We're expecting 8-10".  Sure would hate to have to stay home from work tomorrow :-)

Feb 01, 2002  3.5 hours

Squaring and fluting the wing ribs.

Feb 02, 2002  7 hours

I finished squaring up the flanges and fluting to straighten the ribs.  Next step was to cleco the ribs to the spars.     I had an interesting discover (at least for me, you may already have known this).  I started with the left spar and everything was great.    I drilled out the holes to full size and de-burred the holes in the ribs and the spars.  

I then started on the right wing.  The plans show the left wing.  You have a -L & a -R , 711 and 712 on both wings and have to pay attention to which direction the flange turns, either inboard our outboard.  I assumed that you would use the same sequence of -L and -R, just insure that you turn the flange with the correct orientation.  WRONG.  After attaching the ribs to the main spar, the rear spar would not align with the ribs.   On the right wing, where the plans for the left wing call for a -L, you use a -R and where it calls for a -R, you use a -L.  After changing this we were back in business.  

I sure hope this is correct.  If you are reading this and have experienced this yourself, I'd appreciate an email telling me that this is correct. (update: This is correct. I also received the following from Max Hegler of another way to verify that you have the ribs attached correctly... 

Doug,
You can do it that way. However, I found the easiest way was to look at
the little tab on the rear end of the rib. The tab is on the bottom side of
the wing and has one rivet hole to attach it to the rear spar since the rear spar is "Z" shaped.

Take Care,
Max)

I spent the remainder of the afternoon priming all the wing ribs.  Here are some of the ribs that have been etched and are just waiting on the primer.   And  one set all primed and ready.   

I started modifying the H-frame to get ready to hang the wing.  I ran out of gas before finishing and called it a night.  I told Linda that if anyone had come in this morning and looked around and then came back late this afternoon, they would have thought that I hadn't done anything today.  Lots of put together, take apart, de-burr and prime today.  I should make some visible progress in the next couple days.

Feb 03, 2002  3 hours

Spent time between church and Superbowl to rivet the left wing spars and ribs together.  Riveted and mounted.

Feb 04, 2002 3 hours

Verified the skeleton did not have a twist in it using a plum bob on each end , mounted the top skins and final drilled the holes. Somewhere over the last couple days,  I did drill holes for two wire runs in the wings.  Drilled these holes to 13/16 th's as this should fit the tubing from Van's.

Feb 05, 2002  3 hours

Mounted bottom left skins and final drilled the holes in the skin and ribs.  I planned on doing the same to the leading edge skin.  I knew that when I inventoried the kit the I had received two W-701-R and zero W-701-L (leading edge skins) but I hadn't done anything about it.  I stuck a couple of ribs in just to make sure there really was a left and right.  There was.  Call Van's tomorrow.

Feb 06, 2002   2.5 hours

Last night I wrestled with the leading edge skin without building the jig.  What a pain.  Tonight I made the jig. While I had sawdust flying all over the place, I also went ahead and made the wing cradles for later.  My little corner of the basement is getting full! 

I took the outboard skin off the wing and deburred the holes.  I did call Van's today and they will be sending me the left leading edge skin.  I'm not sure what the next step for me will be.  Work on deburring and dimpling skins and ribs or go ahead and get the right wing started while waiting on the left leading edge skin.  Either way, plenty to do.

Feb 07, 2002  3 hours

I spent 3 hours straight de-burring the skins and ribs of the left wing.  This takes time.  I had already de-burred one of the wing skins.  There are 130 holes on top and bottom, 20 holes per rib per each side of rib, 14 ribs, two sides of the wing, two sides of every hole on both the skin and ribs .... you get the picture.

Feb 08, 2002  .75 hours

Dimpled the bottom left outboard skin.

Feb 09, 2002  4.75 hours

Dimpled the other three left wing skins.  Dimpled the left wing ribs and lower spar. Countersunk the main wing spar where the skins attach.