January 27, 2006

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 things get done so fast with him. Here, he’s the buckmeister. We rattled this skin out in no time. I didn’t have any ear plugs, so he used some tissue and masking tape for ear protection. Looks kinda funny, but I guess it worked!

Here’s the completed skin. Next step… Let’s get the wings on!

We had some hardware store bolts to help get this all going, that the ends were tapered off. Makes aligning the holes easier. There’s too much slop in them though to really set the wings up properly. We put in two proper wing spar bolts in each wing to keep them from going anywhere. Here, the wings haven’t been aligned yet. It’s looking like an aeroplane now!

Next was the iterative process of setting the wings sweep and incidence. The wings need to be dead straight across the plane, and with 1 degree of incidence, set up with a 3" block and smart tool angle finder. The smart tool angle finder is extremely useful here, as was Mike’s laser line. We had to measure and move the wings about 4 times before we were happy with the sweep. Next was the incidence. This was pretty easy to set with the smart tool. I had to extend my spirit level though as it was too short.

Once it’s all set, it’s drilling time for the rear spar attachment! Here I am drilling the pilot hole. Gotta make sure its square to the surface of the spar too. Very important hole this. I opened it up to 5/16" directly with a pilot tip drill bit. These drill bits (from DeWalt) cut a really nice clean hole, and the pilot tip follows the pilot hole really nicely. It’s a perfect fit for a No. 30 hole. Well, on the 5/16" bit anyways.

Here’s the plane with the wings all set up! On sunday, I’ll wheel it outside and take some more shots. Wow, I can’t believe that the wings are finally on. I know they’ve got to come off again, but they’ll only be off for a few hours, then they go right back on again! After this, we had a celebratory beer! Thanks for your help Mike!