Dec 31st, 2011

For some reason I didn't take a lot of photos this week. Worked on the stall warning sensor, countersank the main spar. Worked on the splice plate between the leading edge and the tank, including installing the nutplates, and started riveting the leading edge skin and ribs.

This is the hole for the stall warning sensor (just a microswitch with tang that hangs out in the breeze).



Here's the microswitch assembly. This gets attached to a mounting plate installed in the leading edge skin.

Dec 24th, 2011

Got a little done this week. Mostly getting ready for Christmas. Went to a great Christmas play my nephew and niece-in-law were in at Avalon Hills Bible Church. Wonderful play - we had a great time. Good job Heather and Andrew! Also ran into some old friends from CBN - Yvonne Swain and Bob Crittsinger.

Trimmed the plexi for the landing light. Used a bandsaw as suggested and it seemed to work fine, despite my $25 Craigslist saw and a nearly shot blade...

Installed the nutplates in the ribs for the mounting plate.



Then finished up work on the mounting plate and test fit it.



Match drilled the plexi to the skins and the reinforcing plates.



And here is the more or less finished product. At one point I had everything installed including the light, but forgot to take a picture.



There are still a couple of gaps on the front I want to try to tighten up, but will wait until the whole thing is riveted to the spar assembly so I know exactly how it will come out.

They aren't as big as they look here, but I want this as tight as I can get it.



Also fabricated and installed the vent line this week, and completely fouled up the last of my fuel pickup line trying to make a fuel pickup tube I could live with. Finally ordered one from Van's. It should be here next week.

Dec 17th, 2011

Mostly worked on the landing light this week. I heard from Don at Duckwork's to try measuring edge distance from the outside and the light went on. I had a naggy feeling that it was ok but couldn't see past it. Glad to hear it's good to go.

Of course now I have to cut a big honking hole in the leading edge. No pressure....

After measuring and re-measuring about 10 times to make sure it was as perfect as I could get it, I finally cut the hole.



I did *not* want to have to order another LE skin.

The best tool for cutting turned out to be a metal cutoff wheel in my Dremel. It couldn't totally follow the curve, but was way better than everything else I tried.

This is after cutting and about an hour of cleaning up the cut. I left plenty of room so I could sneak up on the best fit. There's no going back once it's cut.



I spent 2 or 3 hours filing (maybe more) before I was finally happy with the fit and edges. This is about 1/2 way through. The best tools were a straight and 1/2 round file and a scotchbrite wheel for my drill.



Finished up the hole and started on the mounting plate. A couple of nutplates go in each of the outboard ribs (the light is mounted on a mounting plate bolted between the ribs).

Starting to work on the mounting plate.



Then started fitting the plexi for drilling and fabricating the reinforcing plates that go inside.

Dec 10th, 2011

Did some cleanup work on the tank skin. Started work on the T708 tank plate and fuel float.

Landing light arrived this week from Duckworks (LL-DW-09). Got the 55W halogen unit - LED is tempting but pricey and the 100W seems more than I need - hopefully the price will drop in a few years and I can upgrade to the LED unit. Didn't think to take a picture of the whole kit. It is pretty complete though, and should be no problem to someone who's been working on a kit for a while.

I wanted to work on it right away while the LE skin is unfinished and off the plane, but I couldn't seem to find a way to put it on the wing and still have sufficient edge distance on the plexi. Spent a couple of nights marking and measuring and moving trying to make it work.

Here's the template on the wing while I'm trying to figure it all out



Not a lot of edge distance here...



Fired off an email to Duckworks while I was fiddling. He got back to me a day or two later - the answer is obvious. I had the plexi on the outside while fitting, but the radius is much different when it's inside. It's still snug, but there is sufficient edge distance. DOH!

This is from a later session - definitely adequate edge distance.



Finally abandoned the landing light since I hadn't heard back and dimpled the main ribs, rear spar and finished up the top skins.

Also test fit the tank after dimpling the screw holes to #8.

Dec 3rd, 2011

I don't have a lot of pictures from this week. Sunday the 26th there was some fabulous weather so I had a marathon priming session that lasted about 5 hours all told. I primed pretty much all the remaining main wing skins, doublers, ribs, J bars, etc for both the left and right wings. Didn't get to the flaps or ailerons cause it got dark. Very happy to have all that out of the way.

The rest of the week I worked on removing vinyl from the rivet lines on all the skins, then finished up the tank ribs.

Removing the vinyl from just the rivet lines (I use a wood burning tool with a brass tip and a ruler to melt the plastic) keeps the skins protected as much as possible.



Getting ready to finish prosealing the inboard tank ribs.



Ribs are finished. Time to start working on the vent line, inboard rib fittings and fuel pickup line.



Flaring a fuel line. I completely botched the pickup lines. The flares were fine, but I couldn't get the pickup bit to look like I wanted. I finally found some on Van's web site and just ordered them.



Kurt came over again on Saturday the 3rd. We deburred and dimpled wing skins for about 3 or 4 hours. No pictures of the fun. Kurt has definitely seen some of the more mundane and unpleasant sides of building.