| Hours today: | 0.8 | Hours wings: | 275.5 | Hours total: | 374.4 |
| Rivets today: | 66 | Rivets wings: | 5949 | Rivets total: | 8028 |
Riveted on the wingtip. I’m not happy with how it turned out, now I need to decide whether to panel beat… I also hurt my back, so shortened the session. It’s been an unproductive long weekend, at least on the Sling front.
Wing tip cleco’d in place
Skin riveted to wingtip, showing lack of flatness
| Hours today: | 1.5 | Hours wings: | 274.7 | Hours total: | 373.6 |
| Rivets today: | 0 | Rivets wings: | 5883 | Rivets total: | 7962 |
Drilled and countersunk the bottom of the wingtip to the wing, following the same process as for the top. This was a bit tricky, because I think the top was in a little tight. It all worked in the end, but in the process, some of the aluminium strip lifted, so I re-glued it.
I waxed lyrical in the past about Prately EzeeBond. When I came to do these strips, I used it again, and found that the red component had dried out and become thick like chewing gum. So I pulled out a new tube from stock here, maybe six months old, same problem. Finally, I went and bought a further tube, and same problem: the red tube runs freely for about 1 ml, then the rest seems to be like hardish sponge. Some forceful mixing got it to combine with the brown, but I was never sure about the quality. Luckily, all the glue is doing is holding the strip until it gets riveted. But I’m no longer quite so gung-ho about Ezeebond.
Leading edge of wingtip showing upper and lower aluminium strips, both neatly countersunk.
I did a little finishing work. The final wing skin goes between the wingtip and the wing where the aileron is, and it needed priming. Also, one of the plates holding the light in place had a noticeable machining mark on it, so Gareth gave me a replacement some time ago, but it needs painting. Today I primed it, paint still to come.
Last wing skin and plate from landing light mounting during priming.
As of today, 22 September, this blog is up-to-date! The weather today is cold again, so I’m not going to be putting the wingtip on (that was the plan), but this is a long weekend, so maybe it’ll happen tomorrow or Tuesday.
| Hours today: | 0.6 | Hours wings: | 248.0 | Hours total: | 346.9 |
| Rivets today: | 176 | Rivets wings: | 5100 | Rivets total: | 7179 |
Riveted skin 5.
| 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.
| 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
| Hours today: | 0.9 | Hours wings: | 247.4 | Hours total: | 346.3 |
| Rivets today: | 142 | Rivets wings: | 4924 | Rivets total: | 7003 |
Put in all the rivets on the leading edge skin, skin 6. This included some rivets around the light housing that were on the bottom of the wing, that I didn’t do when the wing was upside down.
| Hours today: | 1.0 | Hours wings: | 246.5 | Hours total: | 345.4 |
| Rivets today: | 28 | Rivets wings: | 4782 | Rivets total: | 6861 |
Top skins cleco’d in place
I cleco’d all the top skins on, and started by riveting some of the rivets on the leading edge skin (skin 6) to the main spar.
| 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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A good day’s work.
| 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:
Otherwise, I’m good to go.
During the week, I collected more edge protector from the factory.
| Hours today: | 0.8 | Hours wings: | 242.8 | Hours total: | 341.7 |
| Rivets today: | 0 | Rivets wings: | 4754 | Rivets total: | 6833 |
Inspection tomorrow. All I did today was install the pitot tube holder:
Pitot mounting tube riveted in place.
Spent the rest of the time cleaning up, trying to make the place look respectable.
| Hours today: | 5.1 | Hours wings: | 242.0 | Hours total: | 340.9 |
| Rivets today: | 0 | Rivets wings: | 4754 | Rivets total: | 6833 |
After the huge burden of filling all the rivets on the right wing, I’ve vowed to keep up filling with riveting. So yesterday’s 585 rivets are now neatly filled:
Filled rivets
It took roughly the same length of time to sand the rivet heads, clean and degrease the area around the rivets, inject filler into the rivet holes, put filler around the rivet in a donut and clean up.
I also spent some time sorting out the pitot tube. It had two long aluminium pipes coming out of it, which had to be cut at 50mm. Then the instructions call for holes to be drilled in the pitot head for self tapping screws. I am violently opposed to self tapers, because essentially they’re fasten once devices. So I carefully drilled and tapped 2.5mm:
Screws holding pitot head in mounting tube.
There isn’t enough room under the wing for the pitot to be mounted, so the screws will only go in permanently later. It is a small job, but has left me unreasonably satisfied: it is lovely to tap screw holes, then feel the screws go in with ease.
| Hours today: | 3.5 | Hours wings: | 236.9 | Hours total: | 335.8 |
| Rivets today: | 585 | Rivets wings: | 4754 | Rivets total: | 6833 |
Riveted on the bottom skins, 1 and 2, and the bottom half of the leading edge skin, 6.
Skins 1, 2 and a bit of 6 riveted.
Put the rivnuts around the two permanent inspection hatches:
Rivnuts in place
Opened up the rear of the opening in the skin for the pitot tube, as in the instructions. Here’s the pitot tube holder standing loosely in the gap:
Pitot tube holder through skin.
A good day. I took leave, and my son helped me with the riveting, which was very social and a good way to spend a day off work.
sling056 