Dec 04, 2016     Wings complete - (25.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Finished the left wing and wing tip. Everything riveted and wing tip piano hinges installed. Placed the left wing in the wing rack. Moving on to the fuselage.

  Jun 11, 2016     Finished right wing - (10.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Finished the right wing and constructed a wing rack for holding the wings.

  Mar 24, 2016     Aileron control rod and lower skin prep - (3.0 hours) Category: Wings

Dimpled the lower ribs and countersunk the main spar. Primed the top of the main spar. Drilled witness holes in the rod end bearings and hooked up the aileron push rods.

  Mar 20, 2016     Up drilled bottom skin - (4.5 hours) Category: Wings

Flipped the wing over with help from my son and his friends and proceeded to up drill all the lower wing skins including the leading edge skins. Removed the outer wing skins to debur and dimple on the C-frame dimpled. Borrowed a tool to recess the openings for the inspection plates.

  Mar 12, 2016     Riveted upper outer wing skins - (20 hours) Category: Wings

Deburred the upper outer wing skin, ribs, leading edge and trailing edge spars. Riveted these to the wing structure. Also deburred and dimpled the inner upper skins.

  Feb 15, 2016     Updrilled upper skins - (8.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Updrilled the upper skins. Also received the long aileron pushrods from Sonex that were left out of the kit. Also started working on the spoilers in my garage. Next step is drilling the lower skins after flipping the wing over. Always a challenge even with a few helpers.

  Feb 03, 2016     Aileron construction - (10.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Built both ailerons upside down on a flat table using block to weigh them down and keep them straight. Dimpling the skins and small ribs was quite a challenge and took a while. Both ailerons came out straight and true and fit on the wing nicely. The up travel is significantly more than the down travel. The plans say 21.5 degrees up and 11.5 degrees down.

  Jan 30, 2016     Trailing edge skins and ailerons - (8 hours)       Category: Wings

Pilot drilled and clecoed the trailing edge skins and root fairing. Used a yard stick with a clearance notch cut out to attach the trailing edge skins in the correct position. Cut the aileron skins to length and pilot drilled them for the ribs.

  Jan 16, 2016     Leading edge skins - (6.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Finished pilot drilling the main wing skins and drilled and clecoed the leading edge skins. Used ratchet straps to pull the leading edge skins into position. Most of the dents came out as they were pulled into position but another came out nowhere.

  Jan 10, 2016     Skinning right wing - (19.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Started skinning the right wing by pilot drilling the ribs through the pilot holes in the skin through the blue line on the rib. Used blocks under the trailing edge to ensure the wings were level from spar to spar. In spite of making sure everything was level and square, the inboard bottom skin did not align with the outboard bottom skin at the overlap. Not sure why. Will investigate.

  Dec 17, 2015     Prepping right wing for skinning - (10.5 hours) Category: Wings

Spent two weeks prepping the wing for skinning. Filed slots in the leading edge ribs to prevent lumps in the skin. Also put 5/16” tubing in the tooling holes in the forward ribs to pull strobe light wires through. Found out the leading edge skins had dents in them right out of the box. Trying to find some way to get them out. Began cutting and drilling the trailing edge skins and root fairings.

  Dec 01, 2015     Attached remaining right wing ribs - (7.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Riveted the ribs to the main and rear spars. Had to use a special hand puller to get to the inboard ribs which are really close together.

  Nov 21, 2015     Right wing ribs - (8.5 hours) Category: Wings

Spent the week deburring, removing scratches, priming the flanges and blue lining all the remaining right wing ribs.

  Nov 14, 2015     Attaching the ribs - (6 hours)       Category: Wings

Clecoed the ribs to the main and rear spars. Attached the braces to ribs 2-6. Primed and blue lined the first 6 ribs. Will continue up drilling, priming and blue lining the remaining ribs.

  Nov 09, 2015     Rib Attachment - (6.5 hours) Category: Wings

Spent this week sorting through all the ribs attach angles and braces and brought the aft spar to the hangar and started putting it all together. Had to order one more rib that somehow got lost.

  Oct 29, 2015     Drilled wing attach blocks - (5 hours)       Category: Wings

With the wings bolted together through the alignment holes I up drilled the wing attach blocks to 1/2”. I had to redo one the blocks because the hole was a little big.

  Oct 28, 2015     Assembled right spar - (20 hours)       Category: Wings

Assembled and riveted the right spar using same procedures as the left.

  Jun 18, 2015     Attached rib brackets - (6 hours) Category: Wings

Finished riveting on the wing rib attach brackets and wing attach blocks.

  May 20, 2015     Finished spar riveting - (10 hours)       Category: Wings

Finished riveting the main spar using the 4X gun. The 4X gun had a little learning curve which resulted in some smiley rivets, but overall beats crawling around the floor to rivet. Also having the spar on the work table allows for a straighter spar.

  May 14, 2015     Riveting spar - (6 hours) Category: Wings

Transferred spar to the floor and pounded the rivets with a 4# hammer and a bolt. This method is extremely slow and tiring. I have decided to give up on this and ordered a 4x rivet gun from A S&S.

  May 11, 2015     Reassembled spar - (5.5 hours) Category: Wings

After taking 5 months off for house remodeling I finished all the deburring and dimpling and I am ready to reassemble the spar in preparation for riveting.

  Dec 23, 2014     Dimpling spar webs - (8 hours) Category: Wings

Spent the last week deburring,polishing and priming the spar webs. Also dimpled the inboard part of the spar to accept the flush rivets and screws where the spars overlap.

  Nov 29, 2014     Finished spar drilling - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Finished up drilling the left spar. Disassembled for deburring, scratch removal and priming. Lots of holes to debur!

  Nov 10, 2014     Drilling and up drilling the spars - (7.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Drilled and updrilled the spars to 5/32”.

  Oct 06, 2014     Left spar drilling - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Started drilling the spar caps. Had to use angled drill to drill some bottom holes so I didn't have to flip the spar over. Discovered that I had placed the outboard piece of the spar web on backwards so it protruded past the spar cap by a 1/4”. Sonex tech support said this was okay so I continued on with the drilling.

  Oct 01, 2014     Left wing spar layout - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Continued laying out the main spar including spacers and angle brackets. Had to turn the spar over a few times to get to both sides Used 2X4 blocks under the spar caps to make room for the clecoes. Used a string and level along the outside peak of the spar cap to ensure straightness.

  Sep 20, 2014     Spar prep - (3.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Laid out the spar caps and webs. Decided not to build the spar on the hangar floor so I constructed a 2' by 20' work table and put it on saw horses. Laid out the spar and spar webs on the table and started clecoing the whole thing together. Used shims to get the spar caps even with each other.

  Sep 19, 2014     Prepping spar webs - (8.5 hours) Category: Wings

Sanded and polished the spar webs. Used files, scotch brite wheel and sandpaper to get the webs ready for assembly.

  Sep 11, 2014     Rear spars - (4 hours) Category: Wings

Completed both rear spars Sanded and polished all the scratches, primed and riveted the rear spars together. Moving on to the main spars.

  Aug 26, 2014     Rear spar - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

In order to keep the spar straight,I snapped a chalk line on the garage floor (after taping some paper down). I used some straight 1X4 boards which were supposed to trim boards for a.new addition, and lined them up along the chalk line.I then lined the spar channels up with the edge of the boards and drilled and clecoed through the holes in the spar channels and splice plates. The result was a very straight assembly.

  Aug 19, 2014     Rib reinforcement brackets - (8 hours)       Category: Wings

Spent last several days cutting out, drilling, bending and priming the 40 reinforcement brackets that go on the center ribs. Borrowed a bending brake to make the bends.

  Aug 01, 2014     Trailing edge ribs - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Worked on fabricating the trailing edge ribs. This included alodining and priming the ribs and riveting the clips on. I also Alodined some of the leading edge ribs.

  Jul 30, 2014     Finished rib mod for spar caps - (4 hours) Category: Wings

Finished modifying the spar cutout on all the ribs.

  Jul 28, 2014     Rib modification for spar cap - (4 hours) Category: Wings

Modified the wing spar cap openings on several of the forward and aft wing ribs to allow the rib to fit over the spar cap. This is because all the ribs are identical but the spar cap gets wider as tit approaches the root.

  Jul 13, 2014     Straightened wing ribs - (6 hours) Category: Wings

Located the wing ribs for the next stage and spent hours straightening them by adjusting the flutes and bending them when necessary. Used the kitchen table as a reference.

  Jul 11, 2014     Wind rib spacers - (8 hours) Category: Wings

Fabricated the 28-10 and 28-09 wing rib spacers. Felt like an assembly line worker. Why not just make the ribs a little longer?

  Jun 26, 2014     Aileron pushrods and ribs - (30 hours)       Category: Wings

I spent the last 6 weeks finishing the two aileron pushrod assemblies and ribs and the two spoiler drive assemblies and spoiler ribs. This included remaking 3 of the pushrod assemblies because I didn't like the way they looked. I had to drill holes in the ribs for the spoiler trough even though the plans showed these ribs were predrilled. Alodined all the parts in preparation for assembly. As in other parts of the plans, some of the bolt callouts were too long and the next shorter bolt had to be used in order to avoid excessive washer use. I will now be sharing a hangar at the local airport so assembly of the wing spars and wings can begin.

  Apr 30, 2014     Aileron pushrod idler - (4.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Fabricated the pivot angles and braces and cut notches in the ribs for the spar caps.

  Apr 14, 2014     Root ribs - (6 hours)       Category: Wings

Worked the last week disassembling, deburring and sanding the left and right root ribs. Alodined the assemblies before riveting. Riveted the left and right root rib assemblies after dipping each rivet in self etching primer. Started on the aileron idler pushrod rib assembly.

  Apr 13, 2014     Root ribs - (4 hours) Category: Wings

Worked on assembling the left and right root ribs with the reinforcing caps and phenolic guide blocks for the spoiler cables.

  Apr 07, 2014     Final assembly of of left and right spoiler control brackets - (16 hours)       Category: Wings

Deburred, sanded and polished all parts and reassembled the spoiler control brackets. Rebent the spoiler control springs to make them fir better. Riveted,bolted, and cotter pinned both spoiler control brackets.

  Mar 09, 2014     Spoiler actuator brackets - (4 hours) Category: Wings

Started assembling the spoiler bell cranks and actuator brackets.

  Mar 08, 2014     Brackets - (10 hours)       Category: Wings

Continued fabricating, deburring and polishing machine angle brackets and polished some of the brackets supplied with the kit to eliminate laser flash.

  Jan 25, 2014     Machine angle brackets - (6 hours)       Category: Wings

Started making the machine angle components for the left and right wings. This involves a lot of measuring,cutting,filing and polishing. Used the plans to run off full size templates and glued them on the angles to cut out the parts and mark the drill holes.