23 June – 9 August 2013: Left wing 41-45 – filling rivet holes

Spent the next five sessions filling in the holes in the rivets on the top skin. This job really doesn’t do it for me, which is why it took nearly three months to put in six hours work. Well, that and the onset of winter. For what it is worth, here are the details:

23 June

Hours today: 1.3 Hours wings: 257.7 Hours total: 356.6
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 5604 Rivets total: 7683

24 June

Hours today: 1.0 Hours wings: 258.7 Hours total: 357.6
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 5604 Rivets total: 7683

1 July

Hours today: 1.5 Hours wings: 260.2 Hours total: 359.1
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 5604 Rivets total: 7683

13 July

Hours today: 1.3 Hours wings: 261.5 Hours total: 360.4
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 5604 Rivets total: 7683

9 August

Hours today: 0.9 Hours wings: 262.4 Hours total: 361.3
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 5604 Rivets total: 7683

17 June 2013: Left wing 40

Hours today: 2.3 Hours wings: 256.4 Hours total: 355.3
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 5604 Rivets total: 7683

All that sanding left dirt in the holes in the rivets. Cleaned out with compressed air, which turned out to work really well. Prepared all the fuel tank pipe hardware for installation.

17-19 May 2013: Left wing 34-36

17 May

Hours today: 0.6 Hours wings: 248.0 Hours total: 346.9
Rivets today: 176 Rivets wings: 5100 Rivets total: 7179

Riveted skin 5.

18 May

Hours today: 0.9 Hours wings: 248.9 Hours total: 347.8
Rivets today: 241 Rivets wings: 5341 Rivets total: 7420

Riveted most of skin 4.

19 May

Hours today: 1.3 Hours wings: 250.2 Hours total: 349.1
Rivets today: 261 Rivets wings: 5602 Rivets total: 7681

Finished riveting skin 4 and completed skin 3, apart from a couple of short rivets

2-8 June 2013: Left wing 37-39

2 June

Hours today: 1.4 Hours wings: 251.6 Hours total: 350.5
Rivets today: 2 Rivets wings: 5604 Rivets total: 7683

Made a batch of short rivets and used two of them to close up remaining holes in the skin.

Sanded smooth most of the rivets on skin 5.

3 June

Hours today: 1.0 Hours wings: 252.6 Hours total: 351.5
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 5604 Rivets total: 7683

Sanded more rivet heads on skins 6 and 4. Replaced a couple of low quality rivets (I’m not counting them, I’m only counting each rivet once).

8 June

Hours today: 1.5 Hours wings: 254.1 Hours total: 353.0
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 5604 Rivets total: 7683

Finished sanding all the rivet heads on the top skin.

11 May 2013: Left wing 31

Hours today: 2.7 Hours wings: 245.5 Hours total: 344.4
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 4754 Rivets total: 6833

Fixed issues raised in the inspection:

Jig now on inside of main spar

Jig now on inside of main spar

Edge protector on rib opposite cable, to prevent potential damage to cable if it flaps a lot under vibration.

Edge protector on rib opposite cable, to prevent potential damage to cable if it flaps a lot under vibration. I also superglued all the edge protectors.

Top rivet wasn't properly seated. Replaced with this one. Not a nice job, because there's not much room for the riveter.

Top rivet wasn’t properly seated. Replaced with this one. Not a nice job, because there’s not much room for the riveter.

This rivet hole clashed with the flange of the rib, so the rib was cut back gently to fit.

This rivet hole clashed with the flange of the rib, so the rib was cut back gently to fit.

When Gareth came to do the inspection, he also cleared up an issue for me: the landing lights. As mentioned here, I never could get the landing lights to fit, or understand the springs. Turns out the solution is simple: the cover needs to come off the landing light:

Landing light and cover.

Landing light and cover.

With the cover off, the light fits properly into its two plates, and now the springs also work properly: they act against the screws to allow the direction and dip of the light to be adjusted. On the left is the light out of its covered, properly mounted, and on the right, the light still in its cover, to show how badly it fits.

Left hand light has been removed from its cover.

Left hand light has been removed from its cover.

All of a sudden, the problem of fitting the transparent cover the lights goes away. I took the opportunity of messing with the lights to fit crimp terminals to the wiring for both lights:

Crimp terminals visible.

Crimp terminals visible.

The earth cables go to a good earth point nearby. The power leads run down a stringer to the end of the wing, where they will eventually get into the cockpit. Two power leads for redundancy.

I’m using shrouded plastic connectors to prevent shorting, and two types of connectors so that the lamp can’t be connected incorrectly: spades for positive, and circular for ground.

Before I can close the top of the wing, I need to finish the last stringer. So I roughened and dimpled, then degreased and primed.

Stringer being primed.

Stringer being primed.

A good day’s work.

 

 

5 May 2013: Left wing internal inspection

Hours today: 0 Hours wings: 242.8 Hours total: 341.7
Rivets today: 0 Rivets wings: 4754 Rivets total: 6833

Gareth came and inspected the left wing. He raised a few small issues that need correcting:

  • Where the wires travel in a stringer and the stringer crosses a rib, the surface of the rib needs to be protected.
  • One of the rivets on the first rib wasn’t too secure.
  • All edge protectors to be secured with super-glue.
  • There was a clash between a rivet and flange on the leading edge that needed to be cleared.
  • It turns out I had the wing jig mounted on the wrong side of the main spar. It was on the outside and should have been on the inside.

Otherwise, I’m good to go.

During the week, I collected more edge protector from the factory.