Wings

Jan 2006 – Aug 2006 · 29 entries · 185 hours logged

From the wings sitting on Mike's rack gathering dust, to on for good, with lights, AOA, wingtips and antennae.

2006
January 10 · 6 hours Finally! Some wing work. Well, it had to get done sooner or later, and with Dave being here and the wings being somewhat of a two man job, it'll be a big hel...
January 11 · 9 hours Mike stopped by yesterday and took our aileron bellcrank bushings to ream out on his lathe. We picked them up this morning so we could finish up the bellcranks.
January 12 · 6 hours Here's the Gretz pitot tube mount. It's tied into the rib by a small piece of angle. Making the matching hole for this in the skin was fun with a file.
January 16 · 6 hours In the right wing, we needed to mount the autopilot servo. Here's the start of the basic design. The end plates are 0.063", and the angles are 3/4"x3/4"x0.06...
January 18 · 3 hoursShould've been 6 hours. Turned out to be 3. This is Dave's last day here. He has to leave for the airport at about 4pm to catch his flight back to Australia.
January 25 · 2 hours I went to the hangar for a couple of hours to do a few things. I got the ailerong control rod booties made. I used some Tyvek coveralls, end glued them to th...
January 27 · 2 hours Mike and I arranged this evening to get together and finish up the wing skin and get the wings on the plane. Mike's a really usefull guy to have around, as t...
January 29 · 9 hours Considering the time spent at the hangar today, it didn't feel like I got much done. I worked on doing stuff that needed doing with the wings on. The first t...
February 3 · 2.5 hours We forgot to drill out the rivets on the wings for the nutplates that go to the bottom of the fuselage skin, so I got mike to come by today again after work...
February 5 · 9.5 hours A nice long day at the hangar. My first task was to put nutplates on the inboard wing ribs for the fuselage skin and the wing root fairings. This took me for...
February 10 · 4 hours Here, you can see I've bent the arms for the fuel sender floats. Now then, this was a source of confusion for me, as the fuel tank drawing showed 3" between...
February 12 · 9.5 hours Today was the day that the wings go on for good. The first obstacle to overcome though was the fuel senders. Now then what a malady this turned out to be! St...
February 14 · 2 hours I tried to spend some time at the hangar this evening, but only managed two hours. Trouble is, the hangar isn't on my way home from work anymore, so it's a l...
February 19 · 8 hours I was tempted not to go to the hangar today as it was so cold. I didn't get there until noon, hoping for the temps to go up a bit. By the time I got there, i...
March 12 · 9 hours Back from vacation, it's been a while since I saw the plane! Something cool to do today would be to put in the landing and taxi lights. Today was a lovely wa...
March 26 · 9 hours Today was the day to comply with Van's latest service bulletin regarding the fuel pick ups in the fuel tanks. I wasn't looking forward to doing this really b...
April 16 · 8 hours I did get to the hangar last week, but didn't work on the plane, mainly because I was a bit too sick to think straight, and my friend Sung-Yeah came by with...
April 26 · 5.5 hours Since I was at the hangar tonight when it was dark out, I decided to have a go at aiming the landing light. I've still no real idea of where it should be poi...
May 6 · 12 hours I finished up the fuel vent lines to the wings, so now the fuel system is 100% complete. As soon as I figure out how to set up the fuel account with the FBO...
May 9 · 4 hours I wanted to do something different on the plane, just for a change from all the engine stuff, but something that would also contribute to getting the thing s...
May 21 · 9 hours We had to torque up the wing spar bolts before laying the floor boards, but I'd forgotten to put washers under the bolt heads when I last put them in. I neve...
June 18 · 7 hours Some more wing work today. It's time to start wrapping things up in general, which also means doing some fibreglass work (ugh!).
July 2 · 7 hours Today was pretty hot and humid, so progress was a bit slow really. Clayton came by and help me get one of the wing tips almost done.
July 23 · 3 hours It's been a long time since I updated the site, mainly because not much has happened! Two weekends ago, we had friends over form Chicago for the weekend, and...
August 5 · 7 hours Today was the first day of Thunder Over Michigan, so the airport was very busy! I eventually got in to my hangar after moving a line of people out the way th...
August 12 · 4 hours This evening I stopped by the hangar for a bit to try to make some headway with the wingtips. I needed to have the nutplates on so that tomorrow I could get...
August 13 · 8 hours Today I wanted to get these wing tips wrapped up. That involved getting the foam strips laid in, and a lay up of glass on top.
August 19 · 8 hours Today I finally finished the reinforcement in the wing tips. I had just one foam strip to glass over that I didn't have time for last weekend. I put the othe...
August 27 · 6 hours Well sooner or later these wing tips will be done. I did almost exclusively wing work today, so I figured it warranted posting in 'Wings'.