Wings

Today I moved on to one of the intimidating parts of this project, cutting and drilling the Plexiglas Lens. I started out by laying the Plexiglas over the opening that I had cut in the wing. Next I traced out the opening with a generous overlap, the instructions recommend 3/4" on each side and 5/8" at the top and bottom. That was pretty easy to accomplish and by using the retainer strips I was able to 'round' the corners.

The instructions say it's easiest to cut by using a bandsaw. Since I don't have one of those I drove out to the airport to see Craig Easter at Precision Airmotive to see if he had any good ideas about cutting Plexiglas. He had just finished up doing some of that type work and gave me access to his bandsaw. It turned out to be a lot easier than I though it would. It cut and trimmed like a hot knife through butter. Once I got back home I finished the edges with my belt sander and then used some fine sandpaper to finish the edges.

My next task was to fit the Plexi Lens. I accomplished that by following the instructions and used some strapping tape that I formed into a 'handle'. I got my son Jim to help me out with this step as it was much easier with more than two hands. We fitted the Plexi Lens inside the opening and adjusted it to center it up. Jim held it tight with the strapping tape handle and I drilled the six holes by using the previous holes I had drilled in the edges of the opening as a guide. I first drilled with a #40 bit and then changed over and drilled it with a #30. With that done we took the Lens out of the wing.

With the Lens out of the wing I enlarged the six holes with a 5/32 bit and then used the deburring countersink bit to countersink the Plexi just enough for the dimples in the skin to fit. After that I took the retainer strips and countersunk the rivet holes for the AN426 flush rivets. Next step was to rivet the 6-32 nut-plates to the retainer strips. I attached the retainer strips to the Plexi Lens by using the 2-sided tape that came with the light kit.

I next moved back to the wing and deburred the holes using the countersink style deburring bit. The instructions say a slight bevel on the insides of the holes help to prevent splitting during dimpling. Then I used my pneumatic squeezer with the #30 dimple-die to dimple the attach holes. I also put a small strip of adhesive-backed foam on the inside of lens opening as a mositure barrier.

My next step was to install the Lamp/Reflector in the Mount. That was a simple task of inserting the reflector in the mount and securing it with two 10/32 screws and aluminum washers. The instructions say to be careful to center the reflector in the hole, but there's not much give one way or the other once it's in the Mount.

All that was left was to install the lens in place and secure it with the stainless screws. That was a little tricky since there wasn't a way to hold it from behind now with the lamp mounted. I used a couple of small 'picks' to center the offset top and bottom screw holes so I could start the center screws in the top and bottom. When I got them started I left them loose so I had a little 'wiggle' room to get the rest of the screws started. When all the screws were started I tightened them up and Voila - The left wing now has a light!

5 Hours

Wings - 57 Hrs

Empennage - 195 Hrs

Total hours on project = 252 Hrs.