Landing Light, Part 2 (3)

3 hours

Continuing with the landing light installation.  The instructions that came with the kit are kind of confusing at first glance, but as I went through the process it started to make sense.

The next task was to glue the wing rib template to the nearest cereal box and use it to locate two holes on each rib (#11 and #12), which are used to locate nutplates.  I was able to drill the holes with my long drill bits, but I couldn't fit any of my rivet pullers inside the cavity with the skin installed, so I saved that part for later when I took the skin back off.  I think if I was to install this kit on a completed wing, I would buy a cheap rivet puller and cut the handles shorter to get in there.

Anyway, next was to build the mounting plate.  The kit comes with excessively long plates, I assume to make them universal with different airplanes, so you have to cut the end off and rivet it back on at the proper length.  Not a big deal, I just followed the directions.  I found about 9-7/8" to be about the right size.

The last thing I did today was build the lens mounting parts.  The top retainer is permanently installed inside the wing skin, and the bottom one gets taped to the lens and then screwed to nutplates which are installed inside the skin.  The tedious part of this was, the upper retainer uses a solid rivet in each corner to locate lens left and right.  However, the solid rivets that come with the kit are longer than what you need, so I had to shorten them with my bench grinder to get the desired result.  The rest of it after that was easy!