Left wing leading edge attached!

We had a great Father's Day Weekend camping at Leonard Harrison state park (PA); saw bear, deer, waterfalls, and clouds in a pretty cool gorge they call the PA Grand Canyon.

 

We had enough time when we got home to tackle the stall warning assembly mods on the left wing leading edge. Nat was a big help!

 With the access attach doubler match-drilled, I worked on match drilling the skin at the leading edge. Not sure whether the VA-195 template is necessary given the pre-punched holes, but I looked at it as a tool to prevent elongating the holes.

 Once those holes were drilled, devinyled, deburred and dimpled, I marked lines to file out the stall warning vane gap.

 The diamond-shaped detail file I have was just the right size - as seen by the keyhole shape in the background.

 Rough finished!

 Filed & scotchbrited

 I also drilled to #40, deburred, dimpled & edge-deburred the VA-195F mini rib.

 With the girls occupied I stole a few more minutes to cleco the left leading edge ribs into the LE skin. Couldn't have done it without the clecos they bought for Father's Day!

 And...2 wings! Almost. These came together pretty quick, I have to say...which makes me wonder what I'm missing.

Great weekend, noticeable progress, and new tools (clecos & the rolling stool seen in the background of a couple pics). What more could a dad ask for?

 

Wings: 2 hrs

Left wing top skin match drilled, right wing leading edge attached!

Today was mostly shop cleanup after a lazy morning, breaking down the wing spar crate & vacuuming aluminum & sawdust off the floor, but I managed to also make the right wing actually look a bit like a wing!

The leading edge is just clecoed on, didn't have time to insert the inboard rib for marking, but it still looks pretty cool.

 

Both girls threw in a few clecos for me, but I didn't have the time lapse camera running. Glad they haven't given up on me yet!

 

I also learned this week that you can never have too many clecos - I'm borrowing from the main skins to get the leading edges assembled! I'll either need to start dismantling parts or buy some more. We shall see.

 

Wings: 2.5 hrs

Left wing main skins on, bottom match-drilled, leading edge cradle built

I had some expert help today removing the blue vinyl from the inside of the leading edge skins:

Next I put down the sheet metal tools briefly and built the plywood-and-2x4 cradle to assemble the wing leading edge assemblies. First I traced a W-709 rib on 3/4" plywood,

Then I cut out the first rectangle, traced the rectangle on additional plywood, and clamped the 2 blanks together.

Then a couple quick turns of the jigsaw, and voila!

I modified this slightly from Vans' prints, but the jig sits outside the rivet lines and seems a bit sturdier than what's recommended.

Next I cut two 1.25" strips of carpet to cushion the jig; one

And two

And two screws later on the outside of the jig, and we have a cradle!

And here it is...cradling. Excellent.

With the woodworking out of the way, I finished match-drilling the bottom of the right wing, and traced intersecting lines to locate the tie-down bracket on the right wing.

I also got the left wing skins clecoed on (man, do I need more 3/32" clecos!)

And after match-drilling the left wing bottom skins, I traced intersection lines for the tie-down bracket there, as well.

With the match-drilling of the bottom skins complete, I removed them to free up clecos & allow me to break down the spar crate, making more room to work around the wings.

 Another productive day! I need to finish up match-drilling the top of the left wing, then I'll be able to scrounge some clecos to assemble & drill the leading edges. All of a sudden it seems like we're flying along... I wonder what I'm forgetting?

 

Wings: 4 hrs

Right wing main skins match drilled, left wing on the rack

We started the weekend with some motivation - pancakes! We drove to Frederick, MD to the AOPA fly-in for pancakes provided by the local EAA chapter, and some gawking.

The girls got to hop in several of the planes, including EAA's One Week Wonder. 

Later in the day, one of our neighbors, Joe, stopped by to help match-drill the right wing bottom skins.

 I completed the top skins also.

 While Joe was busy with the match-drilling, I fabricated the left wing-walk doubler and match drilled it to the inboard top skin.

 I also modified the wing stand slightly and Joe helped me hand the left wing skeleton so we could skin that wing as well.

Great to see both wings in the rack! Joe was a great help; it's been a lot of fun getting several different people involved with the build. I enjoy the solo work, but sharing it is just more fun.

Wings: 4 hrs

Left wing main skeleton riveted together, match drilling right wing underway!

Lots of helpers this weekend; who says you can't look stylish while building an airplane?!

(After these 2 pics were taken we moved the right wing to the other side of the rack to allow the top skins to fit over the racks)

Our good friends the O'Connors came over for the day, and Chris & I got to work mashing rivets on the left wing skeleton.

I shot (3x gun 45 psi), he bucked

I can't believe we haven't had to drill out a rivet!

Main rib/main spar rivets complete! 

Or as Chris is clearly thinking, that's right ladies, we are that good.



Next we threw on the left rear spar and squeezed some rivets.

Complete!

Left wing skeleton, never to come apart again.

I started measuring & cutting the right wing walk doubler from the AS3-025 aluminum sheet provided by Vans. Simple straight aviation snips did the trick.

I then lined up the doubler per the manual & did the initial match drilling, clecoing it right to the workbench. This is a technique they taught at the EAA SportAir Workshop I went to; not sure if I would have thought to try it otherwise.

Chris was busy finishing the clecoing of the right top skins and starting match-drilling.

Right wing walk doubler complete!

Chris's son Naish needed some man time and joined us in the garage. Nothing like power tools to make a guy of any age smile.

Right wing 25% match-drilled!

Next up will be clecoing the rest of the skins on, finishing the match drilling, catching up the left wing, deburring, and then moving on to leading edge assemblies.

All of a sudden we have more finished parts! And better yet our friends will be back in 2 weeks. Life is good.

 

Wings: 6 hrs

Memorial Day Right Wing Racked

After the usual Memorial camping and shenanigans we spent a couple hours reorganizing the shop and putting the right wing on the wing stand.

Our goal was to have skins temporarily on by Mem Day this year, and we made it! As it turns out we opted to switch the right wing to the other side of the rack afterward to allow the top outboard skin to fit without interference, but it's still exciting to see something that looks like it belongs on an airplane.

 

Wings: 2.5 hrs

Right wing rear spar riveted on!

Short session but big progress yesterday - first we drove the last four rivets in the right wing main ribs and spar.

I didn't want to attempt drilling out the 2 ugly rivets from last session because I was pretty sure I would end up with a huge and misshapen hole.

 I called Van's this week just to be sure that adding 2 rivets at this location (2nd main rib from the outboard edge) wouldn't cause unforeseen problems.

They said I was probably ok just leaving the 2 smeared rivets since they likely had 90% design strength, but as long as I had adequate edge distance adding 2 rivets was fine.

 My father-in-law Don Holley helped me drive these after I drilled & deburred the holes.

Don & I designed and built an oak dining room table in his garage a couple years ago, so it was time to move the party to my garage.

 Next we clecoed on the right rear spar and started setting rivets. We could reach all of these with the squeezer which made the process smooth & fast.

 Don & I took turns placing rivets & squeezing - and making sure we were using the right rivets.

 Natalie had to get in on the action for a bit, too.

 Finished!

 It's great to see the biggest finished piece yet - now I need to find a place to put it to do it all over again on the other wing...

 I started attaching the support brackets to the wing stand; these things are going to need some filing to knock down the sharp corners, and I'm thinking about sticking some tennis balls on the end to protect passers-by.

It was a great afternoon in the shop! Fun to work with Don again, and I'm looking forward to skinning these wings.

 

Wings: 2 hrs