Jun 24, 2023     Moving the wings to the hangar - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Today was an exciting day because I had Grayson, a coworker/friend, help me move my assembled wings from my dining room and into the hangar using his truck. We ended up borrowing a glider trailer from Alton at the airport, though there was jerry-rigging needed right from the beginning in order to get the trailer lights connected.

I decided that transporting the wings while they were on the wing cart would probably be the safest option. We had to first unload the wings from the cart and set them on my lawn in order to fit the wing cart through the front door of my house. With the cart relocated inside the trailer and secured with ratchet straps, we loaded the wings and secured them with straps as well. Using some pieces of split foam pipe insulation was a great way to protect the trailing edges of the wings from being bent.

In the end, both wings and the wing cart made it safely to the airport and are now sitting in my hangar, along with the aileron, flaps, pushrods, and vertical stabilizer. My plan is to try to fill some avgas into both of the fuel tanks and check for any leaks before I do any further assembly of the wings, since any further work will make accessing the fuel tanks harder in the future. Many thanks to Grayson and Alton for helping with the move!

  May 18, 2023     Prepping and priming right wing lower skins - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

With the lower skins for the left wing completed, it was now time to do the same for the right wing. I started by scuffing the contact areas on the inside of the skins. Then I used the circular sanding disk portion of my bench grinder to thin the material on the overlapping leading-edge corner of the two skins. I also used the edge rolling tool to put a slight bend in the leading edges of both skins. The DRDT2 dimpler was then used to dimple all of the flush rivet holes in both parts, A quick cleaning with acetone and I then some self-etching primer was applied to the skins.

I had a little more time while the primer was drying, so I used the countersinking tool to recess the skin-facing holes in the pitot tube mount. The three holes that mount the pitot tube to the spar flange don't need to be recessed because they match against the flat portion of the spar.

  May 16, 2023     Dimpling and priming left lower skins - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

This session started by scuffing the contact areas of the left wing's lower skins with a scotch-brite wheel in my powerdrill. Then I used my bench grinder to thin out the material in the overlapping corner where the two skins meet, and rolled the leading edges with the edge-rolling tool. After that, I took the skins over to the DRDT2 table to dimple all of the rivet holes. A quick wipe-down with acetone and was then followed by a quick spray of self-etching primer.

  May 15, 2023     Cutting wing skin for pitot tube - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Since I had decided to substitute the Dynon pitot tube in the same general area as where Vans recommends for their pitot tube, I went ahead with cutting of the hole in the skin for it. Using the paper template, I punched the centers of the holes and then used a step drill to enlarge the larger radius of the main oval hole. Then I drilled a number of smaller holes along the inside lines of the main oval hole, then used a wire snip to break out the middle, and a rounded file to refine the shape to my traced line. After a few more refinements with the file, I got the opening just large enough to allow the pitot tube to fit in.

I used cleco clamps to hold the pitot tube together with the skin and started match drilling the three pre-existing holes in the skin. Then I used my center-punched markers to drill all of new holes that surround the pitot tube. A test fitting of the skin and pitot tube on the wing confirmed that it fit perfectly.

What's next? Time to scuff, dimple, and prime these bottom wing skins.

  May 14, 2023     Assembling the ADAHRS mounting tray - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Tonight's project was to assemble the mounting tray that will go inside the left wing for the ADAHRS sensor. This tray is made of several smaller pieces that must be match drilled, deburred, and riveted together. A few of the parts came joined together and also had to be cut apart on the band saw and edges sanded smooth. Some of the attachment holes needed to be match drilled through the J-channel stiffener for that wing also. I opted not to prime this part at all since it wasn't a significant structural component.

I also spent a little time continuing to plan where I would be mounting the pitot tube. I think I've decided to just keep it in the same general location that Vans originally suggests, since there have been a few other online builders that seem to have put theirs in the same location without problems.

  May 10, 2023     Right aileron gap seal installed, wiring fixed - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

I finished the last of the gap seals on both wings tonight by installing the aileron gap seal on the right wing. This also went without any unexpected hitches using the hand squeezer, though I did have to make a couple of slits on the gap seal to accommodate the thickness from the extra doubler that I had added on the right rear spar.

The single rivet role on each of the left+right wing aileron gap seals closest to the inboard aileron hinge bracket was filled with a blind rivet on the advice of an old VAF message thread.

I also spent some time fixing the two wires that had pulled out of their connections. One of the wires was for the left fuel tank sender and had pulled out of its Molex pin, but I was able to remove the pin, widen the crimp, reinsert the wire, re-crimp, and add a dab of solder for good measure. The other disconnected wire was the shielding ground leading to a solder sleeve on one of the autopilot servo connections. I cut off the old solder sleeve, manually resoldered the wire onto the shielding and slipped some new heat shrink over it. All of the wire bundles were then zip-tied together in the midspan of each rib-bay to keep them from moving around as much.

What's next? I need to continue researching which brackets and wiring harnesses I'll need for the autopilot servo. I probably can also start working on the ADHRS bracket and pitot tube mount.

  May 08, 2023     Right flap gap seal installed - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

In this session, I installed the right wing's flap gap seal using my hand squeezer. Nothing unusual this time, since it was pretty much a repeat of the left side.

What's next? Aileron gap seal for the right wing.

  May 05, 2023     Attaching gap seals on left wing - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

In this session, I made progress by attaching the aileron and flap gap seals onto the left wing. Almost all of the rivets (except for one) could be installed by using the squeezer. The one rivet closest to the SB aileron hinge bracket didn't have clearance to use the squeezer, so I tried using a blind rivet. Unfortunately that ended up not setting properly, so I think I will need to drill that one out later and try that one rivet again.

  May 03, 2023     Priming gap seals - (1.0 hour)       Category: Wings

This was just a quick session to clean and then spray some primer on the aileron and flap gap seals, and the J-channel stiffeners for one of the wings.

  May 01, 2023     Attach left OBLE and fuel tank. Wiring. Gap seals. - (4.5 hours)       Category: Wings

My friend Chuck came over this morning to help me finish riveting the last row of flush rivets that attach the Outboard Leading Edge to the left wing spar. We used the same techniques as before, with the root-half of the wing clamped and cantilevered on one worktable, with the OBLE hanging down off the unsupported side while we riveted.

After those were riveted, we rolled the wing on its side and now supported it by two worktables while we screwed on the fuel tank. With that done, we carried the left wing over to the wing cart for storage. With both sides of the wing cart now occupied, this unfortunately means my cats won't be able to sleep in the empty side anymore.

I also spent a little more than an hour installing the wiring harnesses for the wing tip lighting, landing lights, ADHRS, and autopilot servo. Unfortunately I discovered that one of the wires pulled out of its solder sleeve, and another pulled out of the crimped pin, so I'll have to look into fixing those wires later after I order the necessary parts (new pins and maybe a new solder sleeve).

Then I spent another couple of hours scuffing, deburring, and dimpling the aileron and flap gap seals, and the J-channel stiffener for one of the wings. The flap gap seals have an extra angle stiffener that had to also be cut, deburred, and dimpled. I had to look up some other online builder photos to confirm which direction those stiffeners had to oriented and dimpled since the pictures in the instructions were not entirely clear to me, but I think I have that figured out.

What's next: Clean and prime these gap seals, and then rivet them onto both wings.

  Apr 27, 2023     Attaching left OBLE - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Tonight I started the steps to attach the left Outboard Leading Edge to the left wing. The first step was to cleco it into place and verify it was fitting properly, and like the right side I found that the 2nd rib needed its notches to be trimmed a little more to fit around the steps of the main spar better. So I used a Dremel cutoff wheel and some needle files to widen the notch. The instructions provided by Vans for this trimming dimension might possibly need to be increased--or perhaps I was just too conservative in how much I was removing during that step.

After verifying everything was fitting together correctly, I installed the blind rivets that hold the OBLE ribs to the spar web, and then squeezed the flush rivets that hold the OBLE skin to the spar flanges. Then I pulled out the pneumatic rivet gun and installed the handful of solid rivets that hold the innermost OBLE rib flange to the spar web--a couple of these rivets challenged me and required more than one attempt to set properly, but I prevailed here.

The only rivets remaining for the OBLE are the ones on the top-side skin, which will again require another person to help me set. So I started test fitting the Dynon pitot tube to try to decide where I wanted to install it. The rib bay closest to where Vans recommends their pitot tube be installed looks like it would work, though a few other Vans builders seem to also like putting in further outboard, to avoid putting too much in the same rib bay where the aileron pushrod brackets go. More investigation will be required before I commit to a location, it seems.

What's next? I think I'll definitely be ordering the engine and prop next. I also need to get a riveting buddy to help me finish this OBLE.

  Apr 26, 2023     Right OBLE and fuel tank assembled - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

My friend Chuck came over to help me finish riveting the row of flush rivets on the Right Outboard Leading Edge that I couldn't reach by myself. That went quite smoothly, despite it being his first time riveting. Then he helped me attach the fuel tank with screws and move the assembled wing onto my storage cart.

He then helped me move the partially completed left wing off the wing cart and onto my worktables so that I could begin assembling the left OBLE onto the spar as well.

What's next? I'll need to pull all of the bind rivets that hold on the left OBLE, hand squeeze the flush rivets on the lower side, and then as many on the top side that I can reach before calling Chuck back to help me finish up this wing.

I think I may also be placing my order for the engine and prop tomorrow, since the April sale at Vans is close to expiring.

  Apr 10, 2023     Joining OBLE to right wing - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

With some time to get back to building, I decided to finally start attaching the Outboard Leading Edge section to the right wing. I had been delaying this step as long as possible because the wing becomes much more difficult to move and store once it can no longer rest on its spar.

After trial fitting the OBLE a couple of times onto the wing and trying to cleco through the spar and into the OBLE ribs, I realized that I needed to enlarge the notches of the 2nd-most inboard rib a little more to fit around the steps in the spar. The instructions advised you long ago to remove a certain amount from this rib prior to assembly, but I apparently didn't remove enough so I got out the dremel and files and removed another couple of millimeters from those ribs.

With that done, I could cleco the OBLE back onto the wing and then begin installing all of the blind rivets that go through the spar webbing and into the OBLE ribs. This went pretty smoothly, though I did have to use a piece of trailing-edge wedge to set a couple of the blind rivets that were too close to the edge to fit my rivet puller straight on.

Then I squeezed all of the flush rivets that hold the underside of the OBLE skin to the wing spar flange, since these were easy to do with my hand squeezer.

What's next? I'll need to get out the air rivet gun and buck the rivets for the innermost rib, and then see if I can do any of the flush rivets on the other side of the skin (I suspect I may need assistance from another person to help rivet).

  Mar 22, 2023     Final bracket and holes in right wing - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

After yesterday's successful riveting session on the top wing skins, i now had to finish out the last few steps in this section. The first thing that I needed to do was rivet on the outboard aileron hinge bracket to the outer-most rib. After clecoing the bracket in place, I had to match-drill 3 more holes and then disassemble and debur. Riveting the bracket in place was doable entirely with a long-reach yoke on my hand squeezer, though I had to do some slight modifications to my yoke.

The long-reach yoke I used came with my Numatix squeezer, but the hole for the squeezing piston was just barely too small for my Main Squeeze hand squeezer. The hole was supposedly 3/8" but perhaps just slightly under. I ended up using the 3/8" ream (that I use for the main spar holes) to slightly enlarge the hole in the yoke a little more and that worked to allow the yoke to fit.

Next, I had to countersink the holes on the inner-most rib to allow flush #8 screws to be eventually be installed there. These holes were relatively deep, but used the same test jig that I had used for the fuel tank screwholes so this wasn't too difficult.

What's next? I think I need to get back to testing the fuel tanks for leaks, since I'll need to soon start joining the fuel tanks and leading edges to the wings.

  Mar 21, 2023     Rivet party to finish right top-skin - (4.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I invited three of my friends over for some pizza party, and to learn about riveting by helping me finish the top skins of the right wing. Ivo quickly mastered the technique of driving rivets with the rivet gun and I held the bucking bar. We got a rhythm going and were able to fully set all of the rivets, including the J-channel stiffeners, in one session.

What's next? Just a little more work to attach the outboard aileron hinge bracket and

  Mar 20, 2023     Starting to rivet right wingwalk - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I started flush riveting the wingwalk area of the right wing tonight. The wing spar was clamped down to my worktables and I stood on top of a stepstool, reaching down over the aft of the wing to buck with one hand and holding the rivet gun in the other. For the wingwalk areas closest to the inboard edge of the wing, I could stand on the floor and reach around from the side. There was one rivet in the wingwalk that refused to go in straight, even after upsizing to an oops rivet, so I ended up just installing a flush CS4-4 blind rivet there. Most of the others in the wingwalk went in without too many problems.

However, there are limits to how far this position can work due to arm length, and so I was left the rivets that are closest to the spar mostly unriveted for now. Although I was able to rivet the left wing by myself a few months ago by rotating the wing on its side and reaching around the spar, that was some challenging work, so I will be inviting some friends over tomorrow to introduce them to team riveting.

  Mar 18, 2023     Priming, reassembling, riveting - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

I had some time to finally get around to cleaning and priming these right wing skin parts, then move them back inside and reassemble them with clecos.

Since the inboard edge was so easy to access with a squeezer I spent a few minutes to quickly install those rivets and nutplates too.

  Mar 16, 2023     Dimpling and scuffing - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

A little more prep work of the right wing skin and J-channel stiffeners by dimpling and scuffing them.

  Mar 10, 2023     Dimpling the wing skins - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

A little more time spent on using the DRDT2 to dimple the large pieces of wing skin, as well as the two wing walk reinforcement plates. Also peeling off the blue protective film that shipped on these large wing skins.

  Mar 09, 2023     Match drilling top wing skin - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

After getting the top skins and wingwalk doublers for the right wing clecoed in place, I started the process of match-drilling and final-drilling all of the rivet holes. A few of the holes on the inboard edge needed to be larger to accommodate the screws that would later go through them. Then they were all un-clecoed and the freshly drilled holes were deburred.

The one leading-edge corner of the inboard skin needed to be thinned out so that when the outboard top skin overlaps it, there won't be as much protrusion. I attempted to use my air-powered angle grinder but I guess I didn't have the right sanding disks to really make a difference. So I used my bench grinder to lightly remove some of that material to get down to the thinner thickness.

Next, I used the edge-roller tool to gently add a bend on the leading edge of the inboard top skin, so there will be less air disturbance near that transition on the wing.

What's next? I have to clear some room around my DRDT2 dimpler so that I can start dimpling these skins and then start on that process.

  Mar 07, 2023     Riveting the right rear spar - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I started out tonight's session by moving the right wing's rear spar to my drill press and doing a final size ream of the bolt hole in the attach bracket, with some Boe Lube for lubrication. A little deburring around the hole surface on both sides, and then I was ready to cleco it back onto the wing assembly and start riveting.

All of the remaining rear spar rivets that I needed to set were all doable with just my hand squeezer and the longeron yoke. Since there were several different length rivets that needed to be installed, I did have to readjust the squeezer depth multiple times.

After the squeezing was done, I pulled out the top skins and the wing walk skins and clecoed them in place to prepare for the next day's work.

What's next? There's some match drilling required of this top skin and wing walk area, and then probably a lot of dimpling.

  Mar 05, 2023     Assembling the right rear spar - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I started riveting together the various parts onto the right rear spar tonight. The tricky part that the instructions tells you is to skip the rivets where the spars will later attach, as well as the row across the entire spar where the gap seals will later go.

Almost all of the rivets could be installed with the hand squeezer, however some of the long rivets through the aileron hinge bracket needed to be driven with the rivet gun. Unfortunately, those rivets were still very hard to set because of the close proximity to the hinge bracket, which made me try to use the double-offset rivet set but that just ended up in frustration and many drilled out rivets. I ended up just installing those troublesome rivets with the factory head on the other side of the rear spar, with the shop head on the exposed side. This is just a cosmetic difference and not a functional one, and actually it's preferable to have the factory head on the thinner material (which is the rear spar)

What's next? Time to ream the rear spar attachment bolt hole, and then begin riveting the rear spar assembly to the rest of the wing.

  Mar 03, 2023     Priming rear spar and parts - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Tonight's session started with some final deburring and scuffing of the right wing's rear spar with a Scotch-Brite pad to roughen up the surfaces for priming. Then after a quick wipedown with acetone, I started spraying the self-etching primer. In all, the parts I primed were the rear spar, the spar attach double, spar attach fork, and the three doublers for the aileron and flap hinge brackets.

What's next? Time to start riveting the rear spar to these pieces.

  Mar 01, 2023     Countersinking and dimpling rear spar - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

The rear spar of the right wing needed all of the holes in both its upper and lower flanges countersunk or dimpled, depending on whether they were next to the flange of a doubler plate. I also had to ream to final size all of the rivet holes that match up with the attachment fork, and match-drill 6 holes that fork that didn't go through pre-existing rib holes. Finally, two rows of rivets on the attach bracket needed to also be countersunk.

What's next? Some final deburring and scuffing needs to be done on these rear spar parts, then I can prime them.

  Feb 27, 2023     Rear spar doublers - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I started out the session by using my torque wrench to set the final tightness of the bolts and nuts that hold the inboard-most ribs to the right main spar. I applied orange torque seal to these nuts after they were torqued as well.

Then I applied final torque to the bols holding the two pushrod brackets in the middle of the spar, and added some safety wire for extra security. The instructions don't say to use safety wire here, but I thought it was a prudent thing to do here so I had ordered my own pre-drilled bolts so that I could.

Next, I used cleco clamps to hold the three doubler blanks to the appropriate places on the rear spar and started match drilling them, inserting more clecos as I went along. The middle doubler also needs a large oval hole to be cut out of it to later allow pushrods to go through it. The hole is already made in the rear spar, so it's just necessary to match the same shape onto the doubler by making smaller holes and enlarging it with metal files. With those holes all made, I unclecoed them, deburred the holes and scuffed them for eventual priming.

  Feb 24, 2023     Riveting the ribs to the main spar - (3.5 hours)       Category: Wings

This time I worked on driving all of the rivets that hold the ribs to the main spar. I initially tried using the same technique as I used for the left wing, which was to rest the main spar flat with the ribs pointing up, and also using a double-offset rivet set. This again ended up being quite challenging to reliably drive good rivets, so I tried setting the spar on its edge and also just using a straight rivet set while bending the ribs slightly to allow the rivet gun straight access. This method ended up being quite successful.

I did have to de-rivet the torque tube assembly from the inner-most rib since it was in the way for my rivet gun to reach. I remember that I had this problem with the left wing too, but forgot to delay attaching it until after the rib was riveted to the spar, which is something the instructions should really be updated to change the sequence of. In any case, after the inner-most rib was riveted to the spar, I then squeezed most of the rivets of the torque tube assembly back on, and used the rivet gun for a couple that I couldn't easily reach with the squeezer.

With that big task done, I pulled out the rear spar from storage and clecoed it in place just to stabilize the ribs

What's next? I still need to do a final torque of the nuts, and safety wire the pushrod bracket. Then I'll start working on the rear spar preperation.

  Feb 23, 2023     Assembling inboard aileon bracket - (1.0 hour)       Category: Wings

Since I still needed to finish the inboard aileron bracket using the service bulletin design, I got to work by deburring its holes, smoothing the edges, and scuffing all of the surfaces. Then I wiped down the parts with some alcohol and sprayed them with some primer. After the primer had dried long enough, I used the hand squeezer to rivet the bracket together.

Next, I pulled out all of the appropriate length bolts and inserted them into the holes in the ribs that also go through the main spar. Each of these holes have a different length bolt depending on the thickness of the spar in the location. None of these nuts were tightened to final torque spec since I knew I would need to temporarily loosen some of them for the riveting process.

What's next? Time to rivet the ribs to the spar.

  Feb 21, 2023     Assembling rib brackets - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I got out the hand squeezer and set the rivets for a few of the brackets for the right wing tonight. I started with the two ribs that have flap hinge brackets attached to them using 16 rivets each through the web. These were all easily reachable with the "longeron yoke".

Next, I assembled the pieces for the torque tube assembly, which included riveting a bearing that is sandwhiched between other pieces of the assembly. Once the assembly was together, I could rivet it to the rib itself using my hand squeezer. I seem to remember this part being difficult before, but that may have been because I didn't own this longeron yoke yet.

Since I was on a roll with these brackets and already had the primed parts ready, I skipped ahead to the next section and started assembling the outboard aileron hinge bracket. I just had to countersink a few rivet holes to accommodate flush rivets, touch up the primer on the exposed countersinks, and then
pressing a bearing into place with my vice and two wrench sockets as cups. Hand squeezing a few more rivets around the perimeter of this stack of bracket pieces.

Next, I started looking at the parts for the inboard aileron hinge bracket (the one affected by the service bulletin). I started by deburring the edges of these bracket parts on the Scotch-brite wheel, and using the bandsaw to trim one corner of the angle aluminum to match the bracket edge.

What's next? I need to finish a little more prep on the inboard aileron hinge bracket, like countersinking, scuffing, priming, and then riveting. I'll also probably start riveting these ribs to the spar soon.

  Feb 20, 2023     Installing snap bushings on the ribs - (1.0 hour)       Category: Wings

Tonight's work session was a short one to just get the plastic snap bushings installed in the right wing ribs. These bushings will later protect the electrical wiring harnesses that power the wing tip lights and landing lights. All of the holes for these snap bushings had to be enlarged with a step drill bit, and in some cases a new hole had to be made as well. (It would be so much nicer if Van's could just pre-punch a small hole in all the wing ribs, and then people can just ignore them or use them, as appropriate.)

A couple of the ribs needed a little touch-up of primer because they got smeared while the primer was still wet. I clecoed all of these ribs back into their correct places, and clecoed the ribs that had extras (flap hinge brackets or the torque tube assembly).

What's next? Time to start riveting these things all together, starting with hand-squeezing the hinge brackets and torque tube assembly onto their respective ribs.

  Feb 18, 2023     Priming the right wing ribs - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

This was a busy session of spraying self-etching primer onto both sides of the right wing ribs, plus a few of the brackets that get attached to them. Hunching over to spray so many parts on the floor for so long gets a little painful, so maybe I'll consider setting up a folding picnic table next time.

What's next? I need to use the step drill to make some holes for bushings (which I probably could have done before priming), and then start riveting these ribs into place.

  Feb 17, 2023     Prepping wing ribs for priming - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

This session's goal was to prepare all of the ribs for the right wing to be painted with primer. I had to scuff all of the surfaces with a Scotch-Brite pad so that the paint would adhere to them. Then I mock assembled all of the ribs in their appropriate places on the main right spar with clecos, so that I could be sure the correct parts were all here since the multiple shapes of ribs can be easily mixed up. Then I numbered them to be sure their locations would now be permanent.

Two of the ribs have flap hinges mounted to them, so those have some additional match-drilling done to allow those brackets to be riveted to them. Most of the ribs also have two bolt holes that go through the main spar, and those holes had to be match-drilled by using the main spar as a jig. Finally those newly drilled holes all had to be deburred.

What's next? Time to prime these ribs, plus a few other rib brackets.

  Feb 15, 2023     Prepping parts for right spar - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

I started this session by final drilling, deburring, scuffing, and priming the pushrod brackets that get attached to the center of the spar. Technically one had already been done by me months ago, so I only had to do the lower bracket. After that I screwed the two brackets down onto the spar, but used the drilled-head screws that can accept safety wire--though I'll do the final torque and safety wire later.

Next I did some final drilling, deburring, dimpling and scuffing of some of the other brackets that are needed for the wing. I also checked over all of the wing ribs, since I had already done the straightening, fluting, final drilling, deburing, and dimpling processes back in December.

What's next? I need to scuff all of the ribs since I still intend to prime them. There are also more bracket parts from the aileron hinge bracket SB that I need to do a little more prep work on. Then there will probably be a big paint priming day this weekend.

  Feb 12, 2023     Finish countersinking right spar holes - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

This session started by flipping over the right wing spar so that the top side was up, and then countersinking all of the holes. The fuel tank attach nutplates needed their screwholes countersunk deeply, like the bottom of the spar. Then the two rows of rivet holes along the entire length of the spar needed to also be countersunk for a dimpled skin. Then I treated all of the holes with more Alodine pen solution to prevent corrosion.

  Feb 08, 2023     Nutplate riveting and countersinking - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

This session started by installing the rivets on all of the nutplates for the right wing spar using my hand squeezer. A few of the nutplates near the tip and root of the spar had to bucked using the air gun because they were too far from the edge to use the hand squeezer. Five more universal-head rivets also had to be installed near the root of the spar with the air gun.

Next, I set the spar on its edge and started countersinking the screw-holes of the nutplates so that the countersunk fuel tank skins could be screwed down into them. I re-used the sample piece of a dimpled #8 screw that I had previously made for the left wing spar to ensure that these holes were not countersunk more deeply than necessary. After that, the inspection cover nutplates also required their screwholes to be countersunk in a similar manner with a different sample skin for a dimpled #6 screw. Then, I countersunk all of the remaining skin and rib holes to also accept a dimpled skin for a -3 flush rivet. Once all of these holes on the bottom of the spar were countersunk, I treated them all with my Alodine pen to prevent future corrosion.

What's next? Flip the spar over and countersink all of the holes on the top side.

  Feb 07, 2023     Nutplate prep for right spar - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Tonight's session started with deburring all of the holes in the J-channel stiffeners that I had drilled last night. I also deburred a couple of the edges, and then labelled these parts and set them aside for now.

Next was to prepare to install all of the nutplates on the right wing spar. First all of the rivet holes for the nutplates had to be countersunk so that a flush rivet could later be installed. My countersinking drill stop cage made preparing all of those holes easy and consistent. I also treated all of the exposed surfaces from the countersinking with an Alodine pen to reduce future corrosion. Then I located the appropriate nutplates and temporarily cleco them in place, since there were several different part numbers needed for all of the spots.

What's next? Tomorrow will be time to start squeezing the rivets for all of these nutplates and countersinking their screwholes.

  Feb 06, 2023     Cutting and drilling J-channel for right wing - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

I had to take a week break due to recent ice storms here that caused loss of power and a lot of tree damage. However, now it's time to resume work on preparing the right wing spar for assembly.

I started by measuring and cutting the sections of J-channel stiffeners that will later be used to add rigidity to the uppper and lower skins of the wing. These cut pieces were then clamped onto the flanges of the wing spar and match drilled. The bottom pieces were only partially drilled, avoiding the nutplate sections, and then flipped onto the top flange to finish match drilling all the way.

What's next? Debur these drilled holes, then on to the nutplates.

  Jan 16, 2023     Stall warning installation, tie down hook holes - (1.0 hour)       Category: Wings

Since I had previously identified that the initial opening in the leading edge of the wing wasn't large enough for the stall warning vane, I started by marking out the new dimensions with blue tape and marker. Then I used needle files to carefully enlarge the opening by hand until it reached my desired dimensions. Reinstalling the stall warning assembly with screws now produced the desired placement within the hole. I also visually checked the angle that the stall warning vane made with the nose of the wing and it seemed to correspond with what the instructions were recommending.

Then I use a step drill to enlarge the punched holes in the underside of both the left and right skins to 3/8" for the tiedown hooks. This was followed by a 3/8" reamer and a little bit of deburring around the hole opening on both sides.

  Jan 10, 2023     Fixing reversed OBLE rib - (3.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Tonight's session worked on fixing the discovery I made yesterday that I had installed the splice-strip ribs on the Outboard Leading Edge (OBLE) wing sections on the wrong side and flipped. This caused the rib webbing to be facing outwards rather than inwards, To fix this, I had to drill out the approximately 30 flush rivets in each of the two ribs, flip and swap the ribs, and then rivet them back in properly. In any case, I got a lot of flush rivet removal practice and didn't need to upsize any of the rivet holes. Installing the new rivets was pretty easy since the correct orientation allowed me to just use a hand-squeezer rather than the bucking bar with rivet gun.

After getting the two ribs fixed, I did a test fit of the stall warning switch and things are indeed much better, but I think I may need to refine the opening slit in the skin a little more. The vane that protrudes through the slit was a little close to one side of the slit, so I think I'll need to take some time later to make the slit a little longer.

What's next? I'll look into enlarging the slit, but perhaps I'll just set that aside for later... I do need to back to closing up the fuel tanks, so maybe that'll be the next project.

  Jan 09, 2023     Assembling the stall warning switch - (1.0 hour)       Category: Wings

The stall warning switch assembly is made from a microswitch actuated by a stainless-steel lever, and supported by two brackets. I started by final drilling the holes in the brackets, and then countersinking 3 of the holes to accept flush-mounted screws. Next, I scuffed the brackets and primed them with paint. After drying, all of the screws, washers, and nuts were assembled according to the instructions.

Once I had the stall warning switch assembly together, I tried checking the fit in the left outboard leading edge wing section, but then I realized that something was not quite right. It looks like I've swapped just one of the left and right ribs for the two wing sections when building them, causing the rib webbing to be in the wrong place for the stall sensor to be mounted...

What's next? I think the best solution will be to just drill out these two ribs. swap them, and then rivet them back in the correct sides. That first means drilling out these 50 or so flush rivets perfectly without damaging anything.

  Jan 08, 2023     Left OBLE fully riveted - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

One more work session was all I needed to finish riveting all of the left OBLE wing section. As before, the rivets near the very nose tended to be more challenging to get set properly, due to both the curvature in that area and the need to be working with full reach of both arms.

Unfortunately, one of the ribs had a rivet hole on its flange on the underside at the nose that didn't align with the skin, due to insufficient fluting on my part. Removing that rib to re-flute it would have required drilling out more rivets (including the entire J-channel) than I'm comfortable doing without causing unintentional damage, so I didn't see any other easy fixes besides drilling a new hole in that flange and set a rivet through it. The edge distance from the original hole was not ideal, but this rivet shouldn't have a lot of lateral forces on it.

What's next? It looks like the next task is assembling the stall switch and mounting it.

  Jan 07, 2023     Starting to rivet the left OBLE - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Good progress has been made on beginning to rivet the left OBLE nose ribs and the splice strip. I also riveted in the doubler for the removable inspection panel (which will allow eventual maintenance access to the stall sensor).

  Jan 05, 2023     Priming the left OBLE parts - (1.0 hour)       Category: Wings

In this short session, I primed the nose ribs, J-channel stiffener, and contact areas of the Outboard Leading Edge (OBLE) wing skin. I also sprayed some gloss white paint on the parts that would make up the interior section of the landing light bay, and added another coat to the landing light cover brackets.

Once the paint had dried, I transferred the parts back into my dining room workshop and clecoed them all together on my wooden cradles.

What's next? I'll start riveting these pieces together, and hopefully be able to finish that over the weekend.

  Jan 04, 2023     Scuffed and dimpled left OBLE - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Tonight's session started by un-cleco-ing the left Outboard Leading Edge (OBLE) wing section that I had previously assembled a couple weeks ago. The J-channel stiffener was still a little rough from the match-drilling that I had last done, so I started by deburring all of those fresh holes, and then followed up with a Scotch-brite pad on its surfaces. Then I dimpled all of those holes in the J-channel, to prepare it for eventually being flush riveted.

Next, I removed all 7 of the nose ribs and deburred any of their flange holes that needed it, which was only the aft-most hole on a few of them because I had match-drilled them. Those aft-most holes were then dimpled to match the rest of their flange holes.

Then I used a Scotch-brite pad to scuff the inside of the OBLE skin where the ribs or J-channel would eventually mate against. The skin was then transferred to the DRDT2 dimpling workstation and I dimpled as many of the couple-hundred holes in it that I could. For the holes that could not be reached, I had to use the close-quarters dimpling set with my pop-rivet hand squeezer tool. Then I pulled off the remaining blue vinyl plastic from the skin, and wiped down the parts with acetone and isopropyl alcohol.

What's next? Time to spray some primer to add a little more protection against corrosion.

  Jan 03, 2023     Right OBLE done - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Tonight's session was all about finishing up the remaining rivets in the right Outboard Leading Edge wing section. This involved mostly the top half of the remaining 4 ribs, and the J-channel stiffener. Getting the rivets near the nose of the wing were definitely harder, both due to the full length that you must reach into the tank to rivet, as well as the complexity of riveting on a highly curved surface. I did end up using two "Oops rivets" to upsize to a larger hole after I had to unintentionally oversized a couple of bad rivets, but the results still came out nicely.

I'm going to pause with the Right OBLE instructions here because the next step would have you combine it with the rest of the wing spar assembly (which I haven't done yet for the right wing). Also, I'm considering not doing that part of the assembly until after I move the pieces to the hangar, while they're still small and easy to move.

What's next? Preparing the left OBLE for riveting, by scuffing the mating surfaces and dimpling for flush rivets.

  Jan 02, 2023     Resuming riveting on right OBLE - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I got back from vacation and resumed work on the right outboard leading edge (OBLE) wing section. I completed one full rib, and then started focusing on just the bottom side of all of the remaining ribs. I also got most of the splice strip riveted on both the top and bottom side, with just a few more to go.

What's next? I should hopefully be able to finish up this right section in one more session, and then I can start on the left section.

  Dec 22, 2022     Nutplates and Riveting the right OBLE - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

This session started by using the hand squeezer to install a bunch of nutplates on the splice strips, the landing light brackets, lens backing plates, and inspection plate reinforcement ring. Some of those nutplates needed to be dimpled before they could be riveted together.

Next, I started assembling the wing skin, the ribs, splice strip, and J-channel stiffener together on the wing cradles with clecos. With everything fitting together nicely, I started using the air rivet gun to buck some of the flush rivets starting from the outboard side. I managed to get the first two ribs fully riveted in, the section of the J-channel between those two ribs, and the landing light support bracket all riveted in.

I've realized that the instructions did have a legitimate reason for having you rivet all of the ribs in first before clecoing in the J-channel, and that's because the J-channel will partially impair full access to one of the rivets in the ribs. However, I think I should be able to just use my foot-shaped bucking bar to reach under the J-channel for that one rivet on each of the remaining ribs, without having to drill out the J-channel that I've already partially riveted in.

What's next? I'll be going on some xmas vacation travel, so I won't be able to buck the rest of these rivets in the ribs until after I get back.

  Dec 20, 2022     Priming Right OBLE parts - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Tonight's session was spraying primer on all of the internal parts of the right Outboard Leading Edge (OBLE) wing section. I first started by wiping the parts down again with mineral spirits and acetone, and then coat both sides with the self-etching primer. A few of the parts received gloss white self-etching paint because they will be the inside of the landing light bay and will be visible through the transparent landing light lens.

  Dec 17, 2022     Dimpling right OBLE skin - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

A bit of scuffing of the rivet lines with Scotch-Brite pads, and then I took the skin over to the DRDT2 machine to dimple all of the holes. As with the other wing skins, I couldn't get some of the holes near the center because of the machine's handle getting in the way, so I had to use the close-quarters dimpling tool for those places.

What's next? Clean all of these parts and then spray some primer paint on the ribs and the rivet lines of the skins.

  Dec 15, 2022     Drilling and dimpling right OBLE parts - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

This short session started by match-drilling the rest of the holes in the J-channel stiffener for the Outboard Leading Edge (OBLE) section of the right wing, installing clecos as I went along its entire length. Once it was fully drilled, I could uncleco it and debur all of its new holes. Then I scuffed the J-channel with a Scotch-Brite pad (for eventual paint priming), and dimpled all of the holes with my hand squeezer.

Then I removed the clecos from the ribs that had been temporarily installed in the right OBLE skin, deburred and dimpled the two new holes in each one that I had match-drilled yesterday.

What's next? I need to debur and dimple all of the holes in this right skin, and then try to prime some of these parts.

  Dec 14, 2022     Assembling left OBLE for match drilling - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Work on the outboard leading edge (OBLE) sections started out by measuring and drawing a straight centerline down both of the pieces of J-channel stiffeners that I had cut last night. Then I drilled one hole in each stiffener on the centerline at the prescribed distance from the end.

Then I removed the blue vinyl from the insides of both OBLE skin, set the left skin into the cradle jig, and started clecoing the ribs into place. Next the J-channel stiffener was clecoed in by its one drilled hole, and then aligned the centerline through the remaining holes in the skin and match-drilled them all.

Next, I enlarged two existing holes in the skin, cut out the area between them, and then smoothed the new oval opening with files so that the stall sensor (lift detector) can later protrude through there.

Since I had a little more time, I took the left OBLE assembly off the cradle, placed the right skin in place, and clecoed in all of the ribs and the J-channel.

What's next? I'll need to match-drill the J-channel stiffener in the right OBLE, and then disassemble both and do some more deburring and dimpling.

  Dec 13, 2022     More dimpling and rib prep - (3.5 hours)       Category: Wings

I'm back home from my week of business travel, so I started by using Goo-Gone to remove the remaining sticker adhesive off the ribs of the outboard leading edge section, followed by a light cleaning with IPA. The instructions called for adding more dimpling to the landing light brackets, lens reinforcement doublers, and the splice strips, so I did that as well. The splice strips also needed larger holes final drilled and dimpled to accept screws, but fortunately that went without any complications due to their size.

Next, 4 of the ribs had to be modified to cut out sections from the bottom flange to allow them to fit around the stepped portion of the wing spar. I carefully measured these dimensions, drilled the corners of these cutouts, and then used the bandsaw to cut up to the corner. A belt sander and hand files were used to finalize the dimensions up to the line and smooth out the rough edges.

Finally, I measured and cut the two required pieces of J-channel using the bandsaw, and then cleaned up the cut with the bandsaw and hand files.

What's next? I need to drill some holes in the J-channel by clecoing them to the skin and match drilling. Then possibly some priming of pieces.

  Dec 09, 2022     More leading-edge rib prep - (4.5 hours)       Category: Wings

While I still had some idle time in the hotel, I worked on labelling, deburring, final drilling, scuffing, straightening, fluting, and dimpling the rest of the ribs for the outboard leading edge sections. Now all of the parts that I brought with me are finished up as much as I can do away.

What's next? Once I get back home, I'll be able to clean and prime all of these parts and hopefully start test-assembling them.

  Dec 05, 2022     Preparing parts for outboard leading edges - (4.0 hours)       Category: Wings

While I'm on business travel this week, I'm continuing to start work on the Outboard Leading-edge wing sections by starting to process some of the parts. This is mostly final-size reaming rivet holes, deburring holes and edges, smoothing edges, and scuffing surfaces with Scotch-brite pads. Stickers showing part numbers need to also be removed and the labels re-written directly on the parts with Sharpie markers. For the ribs, this also means bending flanges to be 90-degree angles and fluting the flanges so that the ribs sit flat.

  Aug 31, 2022     J-channel stiffener complete - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

In this session, I worked on riveting the J-channel stiffener onto the back side of upper skins of the left wing. This stiffener comes in two pieces that are flush riveted, and have an overlapping area of a couple of inches near where the two skins also overlap.

I found it easiest to keep the wing on its edge (main spar sitting on the tape surface, with the trailing edge facing up) and then use a step-stool to stand above the wing with one hand riveting or bucking from opposite sides. This work went relatively easily, with only one minor problem when my bucking bar slipped during riveting and left a slight dent in the interior side of the J-channel. I consulted with Vans and they indicated that since the J-channel is not structural and only serves to reduce oil-canning effects, there was no need to do anything to address this minor damage. So with that I carried on and finished riveting the entire J-channel in place.

What's next? There are 7 screw holes in the inboard edge that need countersinking, and then I can move onto finishing the trailing edges of the flaps and ailerons.

  Aug 30, 2022     Finished the upper skins on left wing, start on J-channels - (4.5 hours)       Category: Wings

In this long session, I started by riveting the outboard flap hinge bracket into place, since I had previously finished all of the skin rivets in this area. I started to try to install these 10 rivets by using the hand squeezer, but quickly discovered I could only set about 4 of them that way. So I got out the double-offset #4 rivet set and got those rivets taken taken care of. Putting some tape on the rivet set and the spring of the rivet gun is definitely a good trick for keeping the offset rivet sets from rotating while you're working.

After that, I decided to tackle the remaining flush rivets on the outboard upper skin. I ended up placing the wing flat down on my two tables (skin side up, open side down) with a gap between the two tables so that i could reach up inside to buck the shop side of the rivets. Because the ribs face different directions, this was a good opportunity to practice riveting with my non-dominant hand. It was definitely a nice accomplishment to finally see all of these rivets completed.

Next, I got out the two J-channels that I had cut and match-drilled weeks ago and started prepping them for the next steps. I deburred the holes, smoothed the sharp edges, scuffed the surfaces, dimpled the holes, then primed the two pieces. Once dry, I slid them into place and clecoed them to the wing, with the proper overlap section. I had to check the annotated wiki instructions to be clear about the intended overlap, since the phrasing of which J-channel is "on top" has a different meaning here.

What's next? I'll try to finish riveting this J-channel in place, and then maybe set the wing aside so I can start the work to finish up the flaps and ailerons.

  Aug 29, 2022     Flush riveting the outboard skin - (4.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Over the weekend I made a fair bit of progress riveting the outboard skin section onto the left wing. The rear spar and main spar are now riveted to the skin, and I tried to use the back-riveting method when I could. However, it looks like I'd need a longer double-offset backriveting set in order to finish the rib rivets, so I'll probably end up bucking those normally for now.

What's next? Finish bucking the remaining rivets that are still under the blue tape. Then start adding the J-channel to this side...

  Aug 25, 2022     Safety wire and finishing inboard upper skin - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

I started by finishing the last few rivets on the inboard upper skin. The remaining rivets were just the ones along the main spar flange, so I decided to try to backrivet them by flipping the wing with the skin on the work table. I had to use some folded cardboard to slightly raise the angle of the wing so that the flange would rest solidly against the backriveting plate on the table. Some blue painters tape held in the 20 or so rivets while it was in this position during the riveting. It surprisingly worked quite well and was very quick.

Since I had removed the outboard upper skin in the previous session, this provided a good last opportunity to replace the bolts and add safety wire on the other remaining aileron bellcrank bracket. The safety wire pliers that I bought from Harbor Freight are surprisingly functional, at least relative to some of the beat-up pairs that I've used at my mechanic's shop.

Finally, I clecoed the outboard upper skin back into place and started riveting the easier rivets along the rear spar flange. I got about half-way done with those before deciding to wrap up for the night.

  Aug 24, 2022     Aileron hinge bracket attached - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

After putting it off longer than I probably should have, I decided to tackle riveting the SB-updated aileron hinge bracket to the rear spar. (The first time I attempted this step a few weeks ago, I ended up mis-driving multiple rivets and damaging the bracket enough while drilling them out that I decided to order a replacement bracket.) So this time I practiced using my offset rivet set on a scrap piece a few times with different air pressures and found a setting that worked for me. I also tried a new trick of putting tape on my offset rivet set to keep it from rotating in the gun, and that seemed to work out well.

Then, I un-clecoed the outboard ski, removed the blue vinyl protective plastic, and dimpled the last few rivet holes in the overlap corner. Then I set that skin aside for now.

After that I got back to riveting the remaining rivets on the inboard skin and I managed to finish all except the ones along the main spar flange. That'll be the job for another night--maybe I'll try back-riveting those because it's so difficult to drive these just by feeling and without sight.

  Aug 22, 2022     More wing skin riveting and other tasks - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

This log entry represents work done over multiple days, though they were very light-work days due to needing to spend some time on other tasks around the house (including some drywall and plumbing repair in the guest bathroom, assembling a backyard gazebo, and throwing a taco party for friends).

After receiving a new foot shaped bucking bar, I was able to buck those remaining rivets on the inboard edge of the rear spar flange. The angled tip of that bucking bar was narrow enough to squeeze past the doubler fork. I also riveted in the last nutplate on that inside trailing edge.

I also received some drilled head bolts to replace the ones that came for the aileron bellcrank bracket, so that I could safety wire them. Interestingly, the new bolts have a slightly longer unthreaded portion of the shank than the original ones, even though I ordered the size that was described in the instructions. It's possible that Vans has been shipping out slightly shorter bolts than what the instructions say. The longer ones still seem to engage properly but they do protrude out the rear side (of the tie-down hook bracket) a little more than necessary. I only did one of the two brackets on this wing, since the other side still has the skin clecoed in place for alignment purposes.

Then I got back to installing flush rivets on the inboard top wing skin. I finished another couple dozen rivets or so, completing up through another rib section of the wing. This time I tried flipping the wing down on its side so that I could reach around the main spar and buck the underside of the rivets. This angle is quite a bit more difficult because I can only use feel to position the bucking bar, and I have to get on my knees and look up in order to inspect each shop head. It also took a few rivet attempts to get used to this new riveting orientation. I may need to enlist a riveting buddy to finish the majority of these rivets, or try a different angle.

  Aug 14, 2022     Skin riveting and prepping aileron hinge bracket - (4.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I started out trying to buck those remaining 5 rivets on the inboard most edge of the rear-spar flange. The slack group recommended using the angled tip of my bucking bar, and although that did let me get 3 of those rivets, the remaining 2 need a sharper tip than my bucking bar. So, I think I'll probably have to find one of those foot-shaped bucking bars and try these later.

Then I made some progress riveting on the nutplates on the inboard edge of the wing. Because I chose to dimple the ribs in the wing-walk area (rather than countersinking the skin), I had to also dimple the nutplates and use slightly longer rivets here too. I also made a little more progress bucking rivets on the skin up to half of the next rib.

Next, I decided to take a break from the skin riveting and work on preparing the replacement aileron hinge bracket. This involved some bandsaw work to cut apart the pieces, belt-sanding, smoothing on the scotch-brite wheel, and scuffing with scotch-brite pads. Then some counter-sinking for flush rivet holes, cleaning, and priming the parts. Finally, I used my hand-squeezer to install the rivets, then clecoed the assembled bracket into place.

What's next? Probably more skin riveting, and maybe attempting to rivet in this aileron hinge bracket into place.

  Aug 12, 2022     Starting to rivet skins on left wing - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I started by using the oscillating tool to remove a little more material from the overlapping corner of the two upper skins for the left wing. Then I cleaned and sprayed primer on the rib-contact areas on the skins. Once dry, I clecoed the smaller inboard skin section on top of the wing-walk plates and got started installing all of the flush rivets using the pneumatic rivet gun. I ended up using slightly longer rivets than called for by the instructions for the wing-walk area, due to my choice to dimple rather than counter-sink, but that was expected. At the end of the work session, I finished basically all of the inboard-most 4 ribs, which represents the entire reinforced wing-walk section. Although the instructions mention the option of using back-riveting if you want to achieve a smoother surface, I'm just using standard rivet bucking for now.

What's next? There are still 5 more rivets on the trailing edge flange of the rear spar that I have to figure out how to buck due to clearance issues, but I think using the tip of an angled bucking bar will help. I'm also expecting the replacement aileron hinge bracket from the service bulletin kit to arrive

  Aug 11, 2022     Dimpling outboard upper skin - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I resumed work on the upper wing skins by using an oscillating tool to remove some material from the overlapping seam corner to make the stackup thinner, as per the instructions. After measuring with my digital calipers, I think I will have to come back to this and remove some additional material.

Then i started scuffing the backside of this skin to prepare it for priming, and then dimpling it (except for the area needing additional material thickness removal). I also used the edge rolling tool to add a slight bend on the leading the overlapping edges so that they will sit flush when finally riveted.

  Aug 10, 2022     New rear spar doubler cut and riveted - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

In this session I continued prepping a new rear spar doubler by cutting out the oblong hole for the aileron pushrod, using a series of drill holes and a rounded metal file. Then I primed it, and riveted in the spots that only attach it to the rear spar. I also primed the wing walk doubler plates.

The primer is a different color because I'm trying out NAPA 7220, which is apparently the same as Sherwin Williams GBP 988 self-etching primer, and was highly recommended by a few builders on VAF forums. It definitely seems to spray on thinner and have a smoother less-chalky finish, and dries extremely rapidly.

  Aug 07, 2022     Aileron hinge bracket woes - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I received the longer rivets I needed to re-assemble the (Service Bulletin enhanced) aileron hinge bracket, so I started using the hand-squeezer to put it back together and then cleco it onto the wing. Then I started squeezing in the rivets that hold it to the rear spar, and I got half of the rivets in.

Unfortunately, this is where things started to go bad. Due to clearance issues that made some of them difficult to squeeze at a perfectly straight angle, this caused me to get a few badly set and toppled rivets. Attempting to drill these bad rivets out unfortunately caused some off-center and significantly elongated holes in the SB-supplied doublers and the doubler with the aileron pushrod hole. So I think the easier path will be simply order a new Service Bulletin kit and remake these parts due to the importance of this area.

The rest of the session was drilling out the bad parts and using the remaining W-107D from the right wing to start on new one here. I'll still need to order another one for when I eventually do the right wing.

What's next? After finishing fabricating this one new rear spar doubler, I will likely start on preparing the right wing spar while I wait for the replacement SB kit. Or maybe I'll finish up the flaps and ailerons now that I have the VA-140 trailing edge extrusion...

  Aug 05, 2022     Dimpling wing-walk and inboard upper skin - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

This was a brief session to un-cleco the inboard upper skin and the wing-walk doublers, and then begin dimpling them.

Although the instructions recommend countersinking rather than dimpling the skins in the wing-walk area, I've decided to deviate and do dimpling instead. This choice has been made by a number of other builders on VAF for a variety of reasons, but should result in slightly stronger though slightly heavier build (due to no removal of material and needing slightly longer rivets).

I then used my combo belt/disc sander to remove some of the material thickness in the leading edge corner where the two skin pieces overlap. I was initially attempting to use just sandpaper and scotch-brite wheel in my power drill, but those were both taking too long so I switched to the circular part of my combo belt/disc sander and that took care of it in a few seconds.

I also used a scotch-brite pad to scuff up the wing-walk doublers, and the contact areas of the underside of the inboard upper skin, to prepare them for eventual priming.

  Aug 04, 2022     Finish riveting rear wing spar, starting top skin - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I started out by unclecoing the rear spar and taking it over to the drill press so that I could ream the wing attach bolt hole to its final size. Then I re-clecoed the rear spar back onto the wing and installed all of the rivets that hold the rear spar to the wing ribs. I chose to put the rivet factory heads on the external side of the spar (even though the ribs would be the thinner material), since that would simplify drilling out that rear spar in the future if it ever needed to be done during damage repairs. There are still a few clecos holding the section where the aileron hinge bracket would go, but I am waiting for some longer rivets to be delivered before I finish that part.

The next section relates to installing the top wing skins, so I started by retrieving those two pieces of sheet aluminum and the two wingwalk doubler plates from the garage and clecoing them into place. This really made the wing start to feel like something solid since it adds a lot of structural rigidity to the ribs. Then I match drilled a few places where nutplates would need to be installed along the inboard edge of the wing, and final drilled a few other places in the wingwalk doublers.

  Aug 03, 2022     Aileron bellcrank and riveting rear spar doublers - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

One of the back-ordered things that I received last week was a bag containing the aileron bellcrank brackets, so I started by deburring them, scuffing, and then priming them. These were then bolted onto the main spar using the existing bolts that secure the tiedown mount.

I then started clecoing the freshly primed rear spar and its multiple doublers. The instructions suggest riveting the doublers before clecoing it to the rest of the wing, but you have to be careful not to put rivets into the rib holes when doing that. I opted just to cleco it directly to the rest of the wing and rivet the doublers while it was in place and easy to see where the doublers were located. Skipping over the rib rivets would make it easier to remove the rear spar in case you had to drill out any bad rivets. Fortunately, all of the rivets that I installed with the hand squeezer seemed to go in without any problems.

What's next? Time to actually rivet these ribs to the rear spar, making this even more of a more permanent assembly. Then start working on the top skins for this wing.

  Aug 02, 2022     More countersinking and priming - (3.5 hours)       Category: Wings

I made a sample coupon of a dimpled #6 screw and used that to countersink the wing access plate holes in the wing spar. There are only 12 of these holes so it was much quicker than the fuel tank countersinking. After countersinking, I used a Touch-n-Prep pen to apply alodine to exposed surfaces.

Then I un-clecoed the rear spar and doubler fork/plates and finished the dimpling in the flanges that I was unable to previously reach. That was followed by some hole and edge deburring, then surface scuffing with a Scotch-Brite pad, then cleaning and priming.

What's next? I think riveting the newly primed rear spar to the ribs.

  Aug 01, 2022     Countersinking nutplate screwholes in the spar - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

With the fuel tank attachment nutplates riveted, I could now start countersinking their screwholes. I made a sample coupon on 0.030" scrap material with a dimpled #8 screw hole, and also the maximum inner/outer hole sizes to simplify checking if I had countersunk far enough yet. Once I had gotten the countersink cage depth set properly, the rest of the holes went along pretty quickly. A surprising amount of aluminum chips were produced, due to the size and number of these holes, but they all seem to be correct.

What's next? I'll need to make another sample coupon for the inspection panel holes since those are a smaller screw size, and then countersink those holes too.

  Jul 31, 2022     Attaching nutplates to left spar - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I made it back home from Oshkosh on Saturday afternoon; it was lots of fun as always, and only some slight inconveniences caused by weather.

While at Oshkosh, I stopped by the Flyleds booth and decided on going with their lighting package for the standard Van's tips and leading edge lights, rather than the added expense of the ZipTips or AeroLED tips. My Flyleds order has been placed and it should arrive in a few days. I also stopped by the Dynon booth and I'm still leaning towards them, particularly because of their Dynon Fast Track trays and Advanced Control Module (ACM) Jump Start Kit that simplifies most of the avionics wiring. I'll wait until at least next year before ordering the avionics though.

After arriving back home, there were packages containing my back-ordered Wing Kit parts waiting for me. I did a quick inventory of all of the parts and I now have everything for the wings, including the VA-140 trailing edge extrusion and the nutplates for the wing spars.

So I started by attaching the 48 nutplates to the left wing spar, since the spar was still out on my table and in a convenient orientation. With each nutplate, I kept a corresponding screw in its hole while riveting to ensure that there wouldn't be any problems later.

What's next? I need to finish countersinking the nutplate screwholes on the spar, now that all of the nutplates are mounted. I also need to finish the dimpling and priming of the rear spar.

  Jul 20, 2022     Rear spar dimpling and prep - (2.0 hours)       Category: Wings

This was a short session, and also the last one for at least a week. I started by finishing countersinking the last holes in the rear spar and inboard doubler. There were a few -4 holes in that doubler that needed to be countersunk to accommodate dimpled skin, so I had to make a new hole in my test coupon for that size to verify it. Then I started dimpling the holes in the rear spar flange that I could access. Since I knew I would be taking a break, I didn't want to uncleco the rear spar (in order to access all of the flange holes) quite yet.

Next, I drilled out all of the rivets in the one aileron hinge bracket that had the bad bearing. Although I think I had managed to get the bearing spinning freely after manipulating it enough by hand, I didn't want to risk that it would seize up later so I'm still opting to replace it with a new bearing.

What's next? I'm going to Oshkosh/Airventure for a week and keep an eye out for RV-specific vendors this time. I also want to look at the Dynon avionics booth to see how much I like their UI, before I commit to anything. After I get back, I'll need to remove the rear spar for priming and then start riveting it on.

  Jul 18, 2022     Match drilling doubler fork - (1.0 hour)       Category: Wings

In this session, I started by flattening the bend out of the doubler fork that will be used on the inboard edge of the rear spar. This part comes from the factory with a slight bend due to the punching process during manufacturing. Then I clecoed it into place on the rear spar and match drilled all of the couple dozen rivet holes in it. Then I mounted the rear spar on top of the ribs on the rest of the wing assembly with clecos, to prepare for the next steps.

What's next? There's some more match drilling I have to do, then some priming prep.

  Jul 17, 2022     Match drilling rear spar doublers - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

This work session involved preparing 3 of the doubler plates that go on the left wing rear spar. These doublers all had to be clamped into place and then match drilled and deburred for the dozen or so holes that go through them.

One of the doublers also had a large teardrop shaped hole that a pushrod will go through, so I had to drill a series of holes around its perimeter and then use a bit of dremel and hand filing to smooth that out to match the original hole.

What's next? There's one more fork-shaped doubler that needs to be flattened and prepared, prior to more paint priming.

  Jul 16, 2022     Starting on the left rear spar - (5.0 hours)       Category: Wings

I finished up the section 14 work by torquing the rib bolts to the specified value recommended by VAF.forums, and then used torque seal paint to make inspections easier in the future. I also installed a larger rubber grommet into one of the holes of the innermost rib because the intended plastic snap bushing was a little too loose (likely from my poor step-drilling technique of that first rib).

Then I started the first step of section 15 by prepping the aileron hinge brackets. This involved flattening out some of the bend, deburring the holes and edges, scuffing, priming, final drilling, and countersinking some of the rivet holes. Then I got to use my hydraulic press again to press-fit in a bearing, and then hand squeeze some rivets into these multi-piece brackets. One of the brackets is the revised version that is a part of a service bulletin, that was in response to some cracking in this area, so it is obviously much beefier as a result.

Unfortunately, I only realized only after riveting that one of the COM-3-5 bearings in one of these brackets seems to be rotating and pivoting with a lot more friction than the other ones. I'm considering drilling apart that bracket and replacing the bearing with one of the remaining ones and ordering a replacement. I also happened to notice that tail lengths of 3 of the rivets in this bracket were just slightly on the short side, so ordering longer ones might be a good idea anyways.

What's next? The next step for the rear spar section is to begin preparing some doublers for the rear spar itself.

  Jul 14, 2022     Finished riveting ribs to left main spar - (3.5 hours)       Category: Wings

In order to finish riveting the innermost 3 ribs to the left main spar, I decided to un-cleco them and work on them from outboard to inboard. This would provide the most physical access for riveting since these ribs all faced with the flange side inboard, so this sequence also made the most sense.

Typically the recommendation is to keep the rivet factory head on the thinner metal (which would be the rib flange), so I kind of wanted to continue with that practice here. Unfortunately, the final rib already had the torque tube bracket riveted to it (as per the instructions), so this meant that I couldn't fit my rivet gun if I wanted to keep the factory head on the rib flanges. Since only a handful of rivets were holding that bracket onto the rib, I decided to just drill them out so that I could first attach the rib to the spar, then I would reattach the bracket.

Then I spent a few minutes reading the next section about the rear wing spar, and retrieving and organizing the parts for its aileron hinge brackets from the garage.

What's next? I need to buy a smaller torque wrench (since my current torque wrench is intended for larger sizes), and then do a final tightening of these bolts. Then I can start processing the aileron hinge brackets for the next section.

  Jul 12, 2022     Riveting the ribs to left main spar - (4.0 hours)       Category: Wings

Tonight, I started riveting the wing ribs to the left main spar. It took a few tries to get the first few rivets set satisfactorily, but once I got the technique figured out and got back in my rhythm it proceeded much more smoothly. There are 14 ribs (but the 1 outermost doesn't require riveting yet), and I did all but the innermost 3 ribs in this session.

While reading some VAF forum threads, I found one that revealed that I should have cut the short J-channel pieces a few days ago from the 8-foot stock rather than the 6-foot stock (which have a specific purpose later on in the fuel tanks). This means that I'll probably be ordering a new 6-foot section of J-channel prior to being able to finish the right-side fully.

What's next? I need to finish riveting those innermost 3 ribs, then retorque all of these bolts

  Jul 11, 2022     Bushings, riveting, and bolts for left wing ribs - (5.0 hours)       Category: Wings

In this session, I started by re-identifying which ribs went in which position using a process of elimination, since it was too hard to read my hand-written numbers on some of the ribs after priming them. Then I completed the hand-squeezing of universal-head rivets that were in 3 ribs, and installed all of the snap-in plastic snap bushings. I also finished countersinking all of the skin holes on the underside of the left wing spar, then protected all of the freshly exposed metal with my Touch-n-prep Alodine pen. Next step was to identify all of the correct length bolts that go through the wing spar and ribs, and slot them into the correct holes since each rib needs two different length bolts depending on its position.

What's next? I need to torque down all of these spar bolts, and then begin riveting in these ribs to the spar. After that, I think it'll be time to start work on the trailing spar.

  Jul 10, 2022     Drilling and Priming the left wing ribs - (5.5 hours)       Category: Wings

In this session, I used a new step drill to enlarge the various holes in the left wing ribs. I found writing the desired hole diameters next to their holes on each of the ribs made the step drilling process much quicker, since each rib has different numbers and sizes of holes. After drilling the holes, I deburred them all, then scuffed the surfaces of the ribs, wiped them down with mineral spirits, and sprayed a layer of primer. After both sides had dried for a few minutes, I moved them all inside to finish curing over night.

What's next? I'll need to re-identify which ribs go in which positions, install all of the snap bushings, and start assembling the ribs with clecos.

  Jul 08, 2022     Left wing ribs clecoed - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

In this session, I arranged all of the left wing ribs into their correct positions and temporarily clecoed them into place on the main spar. This allowed me to final drill the bolt holes that secure many of them into position. Then I labelled all of these ribs with numbers, and then removed them off of the spar.

Unfortunately, while assembling the ribs together this allowed me to discover that the one outermost rib needs to be replaced. That rib has the trailing flange that you're intentionally supposed to cut off, but I unfortunately modified a W-1011-R instead of a W-1012-R. Although I still have the W-1012-R rib that I was supposed to use, I now need to order a replacement W-1011-R for eventually completing the right wing.

What's next? I now need to use a step drill to enlarge the holes in these ribs for snap bushings, which will later be used to run electrical wires through

  Jul 07, 2022     Finished wing rib fluting - (6.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Over the last couple of nights I've continued to work on the trailing wing ribs. This mostly involved making sure the flanges were at 90 degree angles, fluting the flanges so the ribs lay flat, and dimpling all of the skin-contact holes. Unfortunately, I wasted some time and ended up having to re-dimple a few of the ribs because I noticed that my hand squeezer had been loosening the dies gradually after a large number of squeezes. I've also been using scotchbrite wheels in a drill and on the bench grinder to remove the sharp edges from both the lightening holes and the outer edges.

What's next? Maybe priming these ribs, or finishing countersinking the skin holes on the main spar...

  Jul 05, 2022     Countersinking spar and fluting left wing ribs - (5.5 hours)       Category: Wings

This log entry represents work over several days during this past weekend. I started by continuing with more countersinking of the first side of the left spar. After countersinking, I protected all of the exposed aluminum with a Alodine Touch-N-Prep pen, though the shape of the applicator tip was a little challenging to fit into all of the countersunk holes.

Next was to try to flatten the flap hinge brackets, which were slightly concave from the factory hole-punching process. The instructions recommends a technique of putting the piece in a vice, applying pressure, and then hitting with a hammer. However, I wasn't getting much progress with that method and it was starting to leave marks on the surface, so I switched to using a hydraulic press and that worked out much better.

Then I spent some time preparing the ribs by ensuring the flanges were all 90 degree to their webbing, fluting the flanges to make the ribs sit flat, and removing the part stickers, adhesive residue, and stamped ink marks.

What's next? There are a few more ribs to finish prepping and fluting, and then I can start assembling all of them onto the rib with clecos. I also have more countersinking to do on the other side of the rib.

  Jun 30, 2022     Spar nutplates and countersinking - (3.0 hours)       Category: Wings

In this session, I finished riveting to the left spar all of the nutplates that had in stock. There are still several dozen places for nutplates that I cannot populate yet, so I will have to come back to those later.

However, I continued making progress countersinking the remaining holes (and researching about the proper depths). These holes need to be countersunk to allow a dimpled wing skin to sit flush in them, so the consensus from the Vans forums is to countersink them to be slightly deeper (0.007" precisely) than what a flush -3 rivet would take.

What's next? Continue on with this countersinking... There are a lot of these holes!

  Jun 28, 2022     Replacement hinge brackets for right aileron - (4.5 hours)       Category: Wings

The replacement parts for the right aileron hinge brackets from Vans arrived today, to replace the ones that I had countersunk on the wrong sides. So the first step was to use the bandsaw to cut apart the pieces from each other and then use the bench grinder to smooth off the edges. Then I made counter-sunk holes on the correct sides, deburred the holes, scuffed with a Scotchbrite pad, and then painted with primer. After the primer had dried for a few minutes I riveted them onto the aileron spar, and started reassembling the right aileron around it. I had to finish backriveting the end rib halves onto the upper and lower skins, and finish edge-rolling the nose skin in place. Everything else proceeded quite smoothly and I was able to fully rivet on the upper aileron skin. Since I'm still lacking the VA-140 trailing edge extrusions, I can't close up the aileron with lower skins yet so I just cleco'ed it in place for now and have set the right aileron aside and next to the left one.

Overall, the need for me to redo these hinge brackets actually led me to discovering a much better assembly order for these ailerons that eliminates some of the tight spots... I'd recommend squeeze the two end ribs onto the spar first, then squeeze the hinge brackets onto the end ribs, then backrivet the top skin to the end ribs, then attach that to the nose skin+nose ribs. (Normally squeezing the end ribs onto the spar is very difficult due to its proximity to the nose ribs and the top skin.)

I also had a little time to squeeze the rivets that hold the dozen inspection panel nutplates onto the left wing spar. I used a cleco and one of the screws to center these nutplates before riveting in the first side.

What's next? There are a few more nutplates that I can rivet onto the wing spar, once I find the right size screw for them. The nutplate screwholes need to be countersunk to the right size after the nutplates are in.

  Jun 26, 2022     Drilling holes in my left wing spar - (5.5 hours)       Category: Wings

I decided to move onto the wing spar section, so the first task was to drag the huge spar out of the shipping box and set it across two tables in my workshop. I then had to cut 4 pieces of J-channel aluminum to specified lengths (with a Dremel tool), then clamp them to the sides of the spar, and match-drill dozens of holes through them. Once fully drilled (which required swapping the lower pieces onto the upper side to fully drill), those 4 pieces can be set aside for a later section.

Then I had to final drill and countersink dozens of more holes along the flanges of the spar that would later receive nutplates. Once all of those holes were prepared, I started laying out all of the nutplates into their appropriate locations with clecos. Unfortunately, it looks like among the backordered parts in this kit are several dozen of some of the nutplates. I'll be able to attach the ones that I have, but not all of them for this section.

  May 11, 2022     Wing kit delivery and inventory - (6 hours)       Category: Wings

The wing kit was delivered today in two boxes by ABF freight without any surprises. There were a number of items listed as back-order on the inventory sheet, so those will be shipped to me later at some point (mostly things like pushrods and some bags that had nutplates). I had to go out and buy a couple more plastic shelving units to help storing these things as I take them out of the crates.

After counting things, I've been keeping the "bags" of mixed items together since they seem to be grouped by tasks. However, the "subkits" of larger punched aluminum pieces are grouped together just for the purposes of shipping, so there's no real benefit to keeping them together.

The bags of rivets (only the ones that have more than a couple dozen rivets in them) have been put into 9 oz plastic "spice jars" that I've labelled with the rivet type. The nutplates have also been put into a plastic drawer system and labelled too.

I've completed the inventory of the small parts and subkit 1, so I'm more than half-way through the entire inventory. What remains for inventory and organization is mostly just the spar, angle pieces, and larger cut aluminum pieces. I found one parts bag that was missing all of one type of washer, so I'll contact Van's Aircraft about that once I'm done with inventory.