Wings - 8

8/25/2013 6.0 hours. 198 hours total. Instead of a new post I figured I'd edit yesterdays post. I [we] finished the ribs. Got some help from Dane today, three hours, and we were able to get the remaining main ribs finished. Next task is to install the flaperon hinges and then prime everything.

8/24/2013 8.0 hours, 192.0 hours total. Well, between last weekend and today, I put in another eight hours work on the airplane wings.

In this first picture you'll see the one each, left and right nose ribs. In a later picture you'll see a single nutplate and a small doubler plate installed on each of the ribs. You'll notice I only primed the area of the rib where the nutplate and doubler or installed. I've decided to do this so I can complete the small subassemblies. Eventually I'll prime all internal assemblies of the wing. I want to wait until I have enough pieces to do all the priming on one day. There is a lot of set-up time and clean up when using the air sprayer. I'd like to minimize the process time!

Pictured below are the left and right flaperon hinge doubler plates. These are preped and ready to go. You'll also see the two nose rib doubler plates. The four doublers below will be installed, two of the left and two on the right main ribs. The flaperon hinge will be sandwiched in between the rib and the doubler plate.

As mentioned above, nutplate and doubler installed. The rivet holes and the nutplates are both dimpled and attached using AN426 3 3.5 rivets. There are eight holes in the rib and the doubler plate. The doubler plate is mounted to the rib using six LP 4-3 pull rivets. Two holes each side are left open to attach electrical connectors.

 

Pictured below are the left and right wing main ribs. This is the way the ribs arrive and are packaged by Van's.These will mount aft of the main spar on each wing.

 I spent the remainder of last weekend removing the protector wrap from the left/right ribs. Each, but time consuming.

 The stack on the left and middle have been deburred, sanded and fluted. I have eleven more main ribs that need to go through the same process. Hopefully I'll get that compled tomorrow.

8/25/2013 - Okay, first, the stack of completed main ribs.

 So here's an example of what I'm doing. The rib on the left is as delivered with squared edges from the cuting and forming process. The right rib is an example of the rounded and smoothed edges. This is what takes all the time.

Before

After! Notice the flute?

Next will be the attachment of the flaperon hinges to two main ribs each side with doubler.

Wings - 7

12 hours over the weekend, 184.0 hours total. Got some good time in on the project this weekend and even got a little help from a friend of ours. The past three days were dedicated to completing the nose ribs for the left and right wing. Work wasn't real exciting, but was pretty important. I spent the time filing, deburring, sanding and fluting.

Rib preparation and a question to go.....there are two stacks of ribs. One for the left side wing. One for the right side wing. Can you tell which stack contains the fluted ribs. Pretty easy question I'd guess.

 One of life's special moments. I'm in the garage working on my airplace. Plenty of airplane parts and third season episodes of the Aviators playing on the iPad. Life is good!

 I got a little help over the weekend. Dane helping with the ribs.....a little fluting going on!

 All nose rib prep complete - next step is priming!

Wings - 6

August 4, 2013 5 hours, total 172 hours. I spent 6.5 hours in the garage today but will only log 5 hours toward the project. Had to rearrange my working space and find a location for the finished main spars.Some place where that wouldn't get damaged, and someplace that allowed me to move around the garage freely.

Today I finished assembling the rear right and left aft spar assembly and started work on the right and left nose ribs.

First task was to complete deburring and sanding of the rear spar. This was followed by priming the area of the spar where the inboard doubler is attached and the outboard flange. I'll prime the entire spar at a later date.

 Outboard portion of the aft spar.

 Outboard section of the aft spar with flange attached,

 Another view...

 Inboard right aft spar with doubler attached and inboard flaperon hinge bracket. Final riveting will occur once aft spar assembly is attached to the aft ribs of each wing.

 And this would be the left side aft spar assembly

 Opposite or back side rear.

 Then in was time to start work on the nose ribs. These are the 14 left side ribs with protective wrap. And there are 14 right side nse ribs.

 Same ribs with potective wrap removed.

 Thirteen of the 14 aft flanges are removed from the left side nose ribs. These are marked and ready to trim.
It gets tricky here....
Five of the ribs with the aft flanges trimmed require you to trim off the upper and lower forward flanges,
The one rib that is untrimmed requires the forward upper and lower forward flanges removed.

Then it's on to the right side nose ribs...
Seven of the aft flanges are removed
Two of the seven that had the aft flanges removed require you to trim off the upper and lower forward flanges.
Four of the seven untrimmed [aft flange] nose ribs require the upper and lower forward flanges to be trimmed. Phew, make sense uh- wait till assembly, should be fun!

 Post trim...clean up required.

 All the ribs are now ready to flute. Fluting was actually the first step called out in the assembly process, but it made more sense to me to wait until all the trimming was completed. Also shown are the hinge ribs. and doubler plates....more to come...