October 13, 2006

I got all my stuff done early today at work, so I managed to leave at 1:30pm. Of course the motive was to get to the hangar and do aeroplane stuff. Much more fun than designing car stuff.

I wanted to get the wings completely finished and flight ready. Excluding the access hole covers of course. I’ll need to put them in place (kind of) for the weight and balance, but for now they can stay off.

The first task was to rig the ailerons so that they were aligned with the wing tips. This was pretty easy, as I’d got it close previously. I only had to drop the right aileron 1/8". Next I worked on the flaps. This took a little longer because I had to align them with the ailerons (easy bit), then I worked on the wing skins a little to make them touch all the way along the flap in the full down and full up positions. This took A LONG TIME. I don’t know why, I was being careful, as the last thing I wanted was to damage a wingskin on our lovely aeroplane. It would be a nightmare to have to replace that.

Here is the flap fully down. Once she’s painted, there will be some anti scuff tape along this section to preserve the paint.

Here it is in the full up position. The skin touches all the way along. It’s looking good! The left side was easier then the right side for some reason. Maybe it’s because I did the right side first, and it’s always harder the first time.

Here’s a shot looking down the trailing edge. Nice and straight and all aligned.

I put in the two spar bolts that go in the spar web. I should’ve done this long ago, but for some reason never got around to it. It was on my list of things to get the wings flight ready, so it’s now done. I also tie wraped the aileron pushrod boots to the pushrods. To ensure a good seal I double tie wrapped them. I tidied up some of the wiring and tubing runs here too.

So, after all that the wings are now flight ready! Things are really starting to look finished now too! This is too cool! Can you feel the excitement?