May 12, 2024     Aileron Rigging - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Spent 2 hours rigging the ailerons to the wings. Approximate 7/8" from bottom of control bracket to bottom wing, neither are exactly 7/8" but that is what adjustability is for after the wings go on.
Spent a half hour seeing next steps in order to level fuselage and prep for wing install. At present time, that will not be possible until my friends finish the wings on their Quicksilver. Not to worry, I can find other things to keep me busy.

While working on the ailerons, I had to roll the assembly out and got permission from airport owner to use a parking spot across the way. This gave me something to look at while I was working on the rigging.

  Mar 01, 2024     Aileron Brackets to Power Coat! Category: Wings

Aileron control brackets back to powder coating shop to add 1/2 inch of coating per side. Once I put these in the ailerons during mounting, I found I would have bare steel exposed so chose to just take back to coating shop, they said they should not have to removed the rest of the coating and the 1/2 inch should be easy to coat. Find out next week.

  Feb 25, 2024     Wing/Aileron Hinge Attaching Pt. 2 - (3.5 hours)       Category: Wings

LH wing. Mounted and drilled all holes for hinges for both wing and aileron. Everything lined up nicely.

Went back and took a look at the RH wing issues I thought I had and found it was a mistake on my part and nothing was wrong with it, I just had a clamp holding the bracket so it would not move.

Moved wings below ailerons while I work on empennage hinges next.

  Feb 24, 2024     Wing / Aileron Hinge Attaching Pt. 1 - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

RH wing. Testing my idea to hold aileron to wing and it worked pretty well. I think the ends might be off by maybe 1/16" of an inch but I am okay with that. 3/4" tubing used as required spacers between wing and aileron.

Hinges placed using the calibrated eyeball method, then drilled two holes at a time for clecos to hold in place. After 6 holes drilled and clecos put in, moved on to the next hinge and did the same. Once all was done, removed clamps and confirmed aileron has full movement. Reinstalled square tubing and a pair of clamps to hold aileron from flexing as wing assembly is upside down.

Next step will be to installed the inboard control horn once I figure out how to hold it at its proper angle.

  Feb 21, 2024     Wing Hinge Drilling Pt. 2 - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Finished drilling holes in wing hinges. Ended up borrowing friend's space heater and made my own little hinge drilling station, cozy!

  Feb 20, 2024     Wing Hinge Drilling Pt. 1 - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Scribed lines on all hinge halves for location of hinge holes. 1/4" from ends and 1/2" spacing thereafter. 16 holes per half, 32 in total per hinge assembly. Spring punch at all hole locations

One hinge complete, 5 to go.

  Feb 18, 2024     RH Wing Pt. 8 - (1 hour)       Category: Wings

5 minute job turned into an hour but the final two brackets are installed.

Also looked at the wing lights next to the wing tip and the light is the correct width for the diameter of the tubing. I'll have to grab my rivet nut stash from home and see how it might look in some sacrificial tubing before attempting to drill the wing tip tubing.

  Feb 04, 2024     RH Wing Pt. 7 - (3 hours)       Category: Wings

Other than 2 easy brackets, the wing is done; will do the brackets on the next trip out. Final 2 upper false ribs bent, final lower rib bent, and transportation bracket set; all parts riveted in place. Also, clecos are very helpful.

Note: I still have a spare rib, did not break any.

Note #2: Weighed wing, minus the two little end brackets. Currently sitting at 23 pounds 14.1 ounces. Guessing it will be close to 24 pounds once brackets are installed. Very near same weight as LH wing. Current calculated weight is 133.66 pounds, before bracket install.

  Dec 27, 2023     Upper False Ribs Received Category: Wings

Received ribs in the mail. Temperatures are showing frigid for the next few weeks so no working on bending tubing until it warms up a bit. I would rather the metal have some pliability.

  Nov 19, 2023     RH Wing Pt. 6 - (4.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Made a mistake, seems that is becoming par for the course. Drilled a hole in an upper false rib before I was supposed to, went to do a bend, broke the rib in half. Knew better and yet I still did it. It was 45 degrees in the hangar so I was thinking more about my toes and fingers than what I was doing.

So, rear and side braces are done, and one upper false rib.

A message is off to Kolb to try to get a pair of upper false ribs so in the case I screw up again I will have a spare.

  Nov 13, 2023     RH Wing Pt. 5 - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

Wingtip tube installed with accompanying gusset supports.

  Nov 12, 2023     RH Wing Pt. 4 - (5 hours)       Category: Wings

Majority of false ribs upper and lower installed. Inboard support ribs installed.

  Nov 11, 2023     RH Wing Pt. 3 - (6 hours)       Category: Wings

Few hours remeasuring every thing on the wing to find why it was out of square by an inch. After measuring the LH wing I found my mistake: I measured the ribs off of the inboard spar from the inside of the fat rib rather than the outside where the fat and skinny ribs are identical. Ended up drilling out 5 rivets and moving the ribs over about 1/2", added a filler rivet to fill in the vacant holes, and marched on. Still not dead on square but it is as close as I could get it.

All main ribs are now riveted in place at leading and trailing edges, as well as along the main spar. Cross brace also installed and riveted in to place.

Next step will be upper and lower false ribs.

  Nov 09, 2023     RH Wing Pt. 2 - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

Some assembly. Not quite square corner to corner so have to find out why, think inboard rib may have a slight bend in it. All measurements are same otherwise so will find out the issue on next trip out with a good straight edge.

  Nov 07, 2023     RH Wing Pt. 1 - (1 hour)       Category: Wings

Temporarily mounted aluminum wing ribs on to wing spar prior to fitting to proper locations. Fitted inboard chromoly wing rib to wing spar. Drilled, and riveted upper half of rib to spar.

  Oct 21, 2023     LH Wing Pt. 12 - (1 hour)       Category: Wings

Cut and mounted strengthening angles to outer most rib assembly. Now the wing is as far as it can be until rigging purposes commence.

Also weighed the wing, comes out to 24 pounds +/- an ounce or two.

Put the wing up against the rafters to make space, ran out of places along the walls.
Edit: Replaced the sketchy way I had it mounted to rafters on 10/24 to a more secure way that before, updated picture with heavy duty zip ties.

  Oct 21, 2023     LH Wing Pt. 11 - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Just remembered that I didn't put two little angles on the outboard rib, will have to do that next time.
Everything else is now done otherwise. Three inner support struts and the wing transport bracket installed.
When it is laid horizontally, the wing doesn't look very big, but when standing it up on end to remove all the shavings, it's quite a lot bigger looking.

  Oct 15, 2023     LH Wing Pt. 10 - (8 hours)       Category: Wings

Other than one storage bracket that still has to be made for the bottom, due to an oversight, the left wing is as far as it can be done until rigging commences. Last 3 outer false ribs contoured and installed, lower false rib installed. Spar to wing tip tubes secured with their gussets. Stiffening tubes cut, bent, and installed.

  Oct 13, 2023     LH Wing Pt. 9 - (2.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Finished riveting false ribs and cut, bent, and riveted wingtip tube structures in to place. Still have to rivet the tubes to each other and make some gussets to strengthen everything up, and attach to wing tip.

  Oct 09, 2023     LH Wing Pt. 8 - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

Lost track of time so guessing at 2 hours. Five lower false ribs installed, one to go after I pick up some more.063 sheet metal due to not enough being supplied. Building from scratch has its drawbacks at times.

  Oct 07, 2023     LH Wing Pt. 7 - (3 hours)       Category: Wings

More blurry blueprints to try to comprehend, not as much done as I wanted to get done because of that.
Either way, all but 3 false ribs located and installed. Last 3 require .064 aluminum sheet that was not supplied with the kit, so Monday will head off to buy some.

  Oct 05, 2023     LH Wing Pt. 6 - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

LH wing tip cut and riveted in to place, gussets made for trailing edge.

  Oct 02, 2023     Left Wing Pt. 5 - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Aluminum wing ribs all located and riveted in place, 8 rivets per rib center. Some loose fitting how manufacturer made the flanges but everything fitting tight otherwise. Did use a ball peen to round some of the flange to fit around the wing spar circumference a bit better.

  Oct 01, 2023     Left Wing Pt. 4 - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

.125 thick cross brace riveted in place to spar bracket. All 5 aluminum wing ribs riveted in place on top side at 10 and 2 o'clock positions. Inverted wing assembly to start lower side of riveting process on said rib braces.

  Sep 30, 2023     Left Wing Pt. 3 - (3 hours)       Category: Wings

Drilled and riveted trailing arm tube to wing assembly. Set up sawhorses to put wing assembly on to keep ends at same angle. Looking down the current wing setup, everything looks pretty flush. Leading edge tube clamped in place for mock up purposes, still have some adjustment to do prior to final drilling/riveting.

  Sep 17, 2023     Left Wing Pt. 2 - (3 hours)       Category: Wings

Reading blurry drawings takes so long to decipher, especially when the instruction manual just directs you to read the drawing.
After lots of guessing, and a little readjusting for alignment, LH inboard wing spar rib is now riveted to the wing spar.

  Sep 16, 2023     Left Wing Pt. 1 - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

Trying to understand drawings and what parts go where. Finally figured enough to mock up the first portions of the LH wing.

  Sep 15, 2023     Ailerons Pt. 6 - (1 hour)       Category: Wings

Finished LH aileron as far as can be built until wings are assembled.

Hung up all assemblies on the wall to keep them safe.

  Sep 15, 2023     Ailerons Pt. 6 - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Continuing assembly of LH aileron. One cross tube left to install.

  Sep 13, 2023     Ailerons Pt. 5 - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Installed lower ribs on LH aileron.

  Sep 10, 2023     Ailerons Pt. 4 - (5 hours)       Category: Wings

RH aileron as done as it can be until Kolb tells me at what angle the control horn is supposed to be mounted at.

Also finished making all ribs that need to be installed to the LH aileron.

  Sep 06, 2023     Ailerons Pt. 3 - (1.5 hours)       Category: Wings

Installed ribs in RH aileron.

  Sep 04, 2023     Ailerons Pt. 2 - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Spent the day cutting, bending, drilling, and deburring ribs. End of the night, all lower ribs for both ailerons are done and ready for install. All upper support ribs for both ailerons are cut to size and deburred.

  Sep 03, 2023     Ailerons Pt. 1 - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Deciphering blueprints most of the day, but did manage to finish the frames for the ailerons. Also finished one rib so I have an idea of what I will be confronted with tomorrow when I attempt to do the rest.

  Sep 03, 2023     Wings Pt. 1 - (1 hour)       Category: Wings

Leading and trailing edge tubes for wings, and leading edge tubes for ailerons cut to size and deburred.