RH Wing Inspection

I haven't had much time lately to get anything done, but I did have a local EAA technical counselor and FAA inspector stop by today and take a look at my wing before I close anything up.

He recommended I replace a few of the bolts along the spar that don't protrude past the nut at all, but otherwise everything is looking good!

Deburring (1)

1 hour

I pulled top aft skin off and started deburring holes...  deburring this whole wing is going to take a while!  On the plus side I picked up one of these deburring tools which does both sides of a hole in one operation:

http://www.yardstore.com/texas-in-out-deburr-tool-1-8-quot.html

It goes much faster than my hand deburr tool, so it should save a bunch of time overall!

I also went back and drilled the rib #9 reinforcements to the skin.

When I pull the bottom skin off next, I'll need to go back and enlarge the hole for the tiedown fitting.

RH Forward Skin Dimpling (2)

2 hours

I got the whole forward skin deburred and dimpled!  I also countersunk the front half of the tip rib, which was tricky to do without enlarging the holes.

RH Wing Skins Updrilling (1.5)

1.5 hours

Now that the big pieces are all fit, I want to stand the wing back up on the main spar so I can work on both sides.

I went through and updrilled all the holes on the forward skin, but I used a #32 but instead of #30.  They'll all get dimpled for flush rivets so the dimpling will open the holes up to 1/8".  However, a 1/8" cleco doesn't quite fit in a #32 hole, so I had to use 3/32" clecos as I went.  They worked, but they obviously didn't hold everything as tight as normal so I had to be careful and make sure everything stayed lined up while I updrilled.

Anyway once that was done I took the forward skin off and put the wing back on my little work stands for the next tasks!

RH Tip Rib Part 2 (2)

2 hours

With a little more sanding I got the tip rib pretty well fit and pilot drilled to the skin.

It fit great everywhere except a couple spots right at the leading edge, so I made a couple shims out of scrap sheet to fill in the gap.  I think if anything it might need a tiny bit of body filler but that's a problem for much later!

I was puzzled about how to drill the tip to match the pilot holes in the flange at the end of the main and rear spars.  While looking at the other wing tip to see what I could figure out, I noticed that I could see through it if I held it up to a light!  So I pulled the tip back off, put a flashlight behind it, and reinstalled it.  Then I could easily see the shadows of the holes I was trying to match.

 The tip rib is done for now, until I got back and updrill the whole leading edge.

RH Root Doubler and Tip Rib (2.5)

2.5 hours

Today I got the root doubler fit and updrilled...  Probably about two thirds of the holes lined up perfectly, and the rest were close enough that they were good once everything was updrilled.  There were just a few holes, maybe four or five near the trailing edge, that were off enough that they were a tiny bit elongated once I drilled through all the layers.  I might throw an extra rivet in between a couple of them as backup!

Next I started on the fiberglass tip rib.  This thing just needs to be trimmed until it fits.  I used a sanding drum on a Dremel tool to grind town the flange.  It still needs a bit more adjusting and then I think it will fit pretty well!

RH Root Ribs (2.5)

2.5 hours

Root rib installation.  Unlike the legacy Sonex plans, the B-model plans have you fit the skins first and then go back and install the root ribs using the skins as a guide to locate them.  This was fairly easy.  The main attach angles and the ribs were all pilot drilled, and the holes lined up well enough that I could get several clecos through each.  Then I drilled the ribs to the pilot holes in the skin. 

With the aft root rib clecoed all the way around, I was able to drill the back end of it to the rear spar attach angle, which was blank.  After drilling into my own finger and bleeding all over everything, I had the root ribs fit!

The last thing to add was the little reinforcement angles that I bent a few weeks ago.  The pilot holes lined up well enough on these parts as well.

Then I removed both ribs to rivet them to the reinforcements and the main spar attach angles.

Then I reinstalled the ribs.  I used new locknuts on the main spar attach angles, since this ought to be the last time they're ever removed.  Finally, I riveted the aft rib to the rear spar attach angle.

Done!

Pitot/Static System Part 2 (1)

1 hour

Not much time to work tonight, but I made the little mounting plate for the pitot/static tube.  Next I'll have to cut out the 4" hole on the bottom of the forward skin that it'll mount on.

RH Wing Skins Part 2 (4)

4 hours

Lots more drilling of holes!  I partially updrilled the lower aft skin to regain some silver clecos, and then I got out the forward skin.

I flipped the wing back to right side up, and then drilled the forward skin to the main spar, overlapping the top aft skin.  Since I accidentally already updrilled all the holes yesterday it was kind of a pain, but I just started with the forward skin under the aft skin so I could see the holes, then drilled everything together.  Then I removed the clecos, put the forward skin on top of the aft skin where it belongs, and clecoed it back together.  All the pre-punched pilot holes lined up perfectly so it ended up not being a very big deal.

From there I worked my way forward drilling the skin to all the forward ribs.  Next I had to flip the wing yet again to do the underside of the forward skin.  Per the Sonex instructions, I just used some ratchet straps and a bunch of scrap wood to pull the skin closed.  This was actually a lot easier than the tail surfaces!

The last phase of this operation was to drill the bottom of the skin to all the forward ribs.  This actually was kind of a pain since I couldn't reach most of the ribs to help center them.  I ended up using a long 1x4 to push on the ribs from either end until I could see my sharpie centerlines through the holes.  It was pretty tedious but eventually I got all of them!

RH Wing Skins Part 1 (5)

5 hours

Now that I'm confident the wing is square, I put it back on the table and leveled it at both ends before starting on the upper aft skin.

I pretty much just followed the Sonex instruction sheet and started drilling the skin to the ribs working from the rear spar to the main spar.  It is a lot of holes!

Once I had all the holes drilled I was pretty much out of silver clecos, so I started updrilling everything to #30.  I got a little carried away and updrilled the holes along the main spar and root doubler which I shouldn't have done!  Not the end of the world but it'll make fitting the forward skin and the doubler a little trickier.

Anyway with the upper skin looking good, I got my wife to help me flip the wing over and I started on the lower skin.