12/31/2013 13 hours - 282 hours total - Did about as much as I'm going to do to the left wing at this point. Everything is done with the exception of sealing the position light fairing and building and installing the flaperons, I need to clear some space in the garage in order to work. Built a wing stand today so this should help.
First, I drilled out five rivets to place the narrow close out under the wider skin. I had messed that up.
Finished installing the rivets for the flaperon hinge bracket.
Flox/Expoxied the postion light fairing.
Installed the wing close out nut plates and associated cover.Not thrilled now this turned out- Wing panel is indentied in this area....ever so slightly- disappears when cover is removed.
Added a little flox/Epoxy to these to mounting holes. The edge distance was a concern to me.
Finally, today I completed a wing stand for both of the wings. Soon as I get a second set of hands I'll load the left wing onto the sling to clear off the work bench so I can get started on the flaperons.
12/19/2013 12 hours - 269 hours total - I'm 48 weeks into the project. I'd hoped to average 8 hours per week to stay on my self imposed schedule. It looks like I'm averaging about 5.6 hours per week- not to bad considering I'm still working and have other obligations....January 6th will mark the first year anniversary of the project.
It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I have been making progress - just not a lot to report. In this segment I complete the wing tip close-out and get ready to install the wing tip position light and strobe.
Okay, the first thing I did was fit up all the wing tip skins. In this picture you are looking at the forward wing tip after forming up the forward wing tip rib. You're looking at the forward upper skin ans wing tip rib after fluting to form the tip rib shape. I don't care for the exposed cut outs- you can see six in this picture. This is typical of what I've seen on other RV-12's.
In this photo you're looking at the forward and aft wing tip ribs cleoco'd in position.
This is bottom center outboard, wing close out panel. I took this picture because I was surprised by the gap. It is in a perfect location to allow moisture to drain out, just a little surprising. The close out panel has about 30 tabs that all need to be nebt to a particular angle. You can see the shape and angles of the lower side wing and the need to bend the tabs for a correct rivet joint.
After final drilling all the holes I removed all wing tip subassemblies and primed the interior sides. I then reassembled and riveted all the pieces in place. I also prepped the wing-tip strobe and position light fairing. These items are options in the RV-12 kit package.That piece is cleocoed in place.
In this view you can see the wing-tip and strobe fairing in place. You also get a good view of the wing close-out panel and wing-tip handle. The wings of the RV-12 are designed to easily remove the wings for transport to and from the airport, hense the handle. I'll have someone help flip the wing so it's resting on the top side. Per instructions I need to apply flox/epoxy to the section of the fairing that contacts the forward tip rib. I'll also need to apply fuel tank sealant to the fairing where it mates to the close out panel. I ordered all these supplies from Aircraft Spruce. The packages arrived today.
One more view of the close out panel near the trailing edge.
Nearly a complete left wing. I'm going to assemble both left and right flaperons before beginning work on skinning the right wing. After the flaperons I'll build a carrier for the wings for 'easy' transport/movement. I'm thinking probably first of the year I'll order the fuselage kit.
