Wings

Yesterday afternoon the UPS man dropped off a package from Van's Aricraft for me. The box contained the leading edge landing light kits for both wings. It was too late to start anything yesterday so about all I did was open up the box and look at everything.

Today I got in the garage and made a start on the left wing. The first step was to do an inventory of the parts to make sure I had everything that I needed. Once I was sure that I had everything I prepared the leading edge and wing cutout template. Following the directions provided I measured and then taped the template in place and then traced out the cutout on the leading edge of the wing.

Next came the nerve wracking task of cutting the big hole in the perfectly fine wing. I used a Unibit to make a 7/8" hole and then used my nibbler to cut out the aluminum. I left about 1/4" of material next to the line as I didn't want to get to close and possibly distort the metal. When I had the cutout made I spent considerable time with a set of files to trim the hole to final size. With the hole cut to size I deburred the edges and then used fine sandpaper and a scotchbrite pad to make a really smooth edge.

I taped the template back over the hole and drilled the six holes that were marked. I used the small retainer strips as a drill guide and made sure it aligned properly.

The next step was to fit the rib shaped template in the leading edge and mark the 4 locations to drill for the plate-nuts that will hold the reflector mount. With the holes drilled I was able to hold the plate-nuts in place with clecos and then drilled the rivet holes for them. It was close quartered inside the wing and took a little bit of contortion to hold and drill. Once I had the holes finished I had to deburr and then I riveted the 4 plate-nuts in position.

6 Hours

Wings - 51 hrs

Empennage - 195 hrs

Total hours on project = 246