Category Archives: 3. Wings

Building of the wing kit

Section 11 Main Spar Part III

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Good day’s work today going through page 11-03. I finished countersinking the left wing main spar. After countersinking all of the nut plate attach rivet holes and the skin attach rivet holes, I primed the countersunk portion of the hole by spraying primer then wiping it off of the flat part of the spar flange.

After the primer dried, it was time to install about 60 nutplates, each with 2 AN426AD rivets. The lower flange, I used the Main Squeeze hand squeezer. I had to drill out a couple of rivets, one because it didn’t set flush, and one because I wasn’t paying attention… see below…
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Ultimately, they all got successfully installed.
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For the upper flange, I used the pneumatic squeezer. It’s a very powerful tool and requires a good bit of focus for me. I was pleased with the results, I had to drill out two rivets that didn’t set flush but it went much faster and less muscle power.

Here’s a video of me installing nutplates, first with the hand squeezer then with the pneumatic. Then I countersink the attach screw holes deep enough to allow the dimpled 0.032 wing skin and fuel tank.

 

Section 11 Main Spar Part II

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Not a lot of visual progress worthy of pictures today because I spent the day countersinking the main spar. First I did all of the nutplate attach rivet holes since they will need to be of a depth to accept a rivet head. Then I adjusted the countersink cage to go a little deeper and started on the skin and rib attach holes. These holes will need to accept a dimpled skin so they need to be countersunk a little deeper. I have a LOT more of those holes to go but hopefully I’ll be able to finish them tomorrow.

Like I said, not a lot of visual progress but this at least shows that we can fit a car in the workshop garage

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Section 11 Main Spar

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Started working on the wing today. Finished page 11-02 by fabricating some J-Channel and match drilling it to the spar using the holes on the spar as guides. I found that cutting the J-channel with a Dremel tool a little long then cutting to final length with the band saw worked best. I left the blue plastic on the J-channel since they will be set aside until Section 14 and installed with the wing skins. I’ll debur and prime at that time too.

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Inventory Complete

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Finished the inventory today. There are a couple of items back ordered as noted on the inventory sheet, the clear lenses for the Nav lights and the landing/taxi lights. There is also a part number VB-11 missing but upon consulting the folks on vansairforce.net forum, that’s nothing but some template drawings for a wing stand. There’s lots of info on how to build the wing cradle so I’m not worried about that.

Thanks to the great work of Ashley on the label maker, most of the items from the hardware submit have a nicely labeled home.
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Wing Kit Arrived!

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The wing kit arrived yesterday via Conway Freight.
IMG 2200I was worried that I (alone) wouldn’t be able to get the boxes off the truck and into the garage but the driver was 100% prepared. They had a lift gate and a palate jack. More pictures later but just to give an idea…
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Inventory is well underway and should be finished today. Need to figure out a place to store big things like the wing tips and little things like countless plate nuts…