Home Preparation Empennage Wings Fuselage Engine Finish Kit Favorite Links W & B Calculator Van's Aircraft Email Me

Wings Update March 2010 Updates March 18, 2010 Wings.... - 6.0 hrs OK continuing on..... waiting on UPS to bring a ACS order today. Need the sleeves and nuts for the pitot tube to finish that up. So I continued on with the other things I can do to prep for the right wing. First I drilled and deburred the flap and aileron brace. Then I cut the section of the flap brace and cleaned it up and then preped them for priming. Also primed the outside of the torque tubes while I was at it. Then I took a run to the hangar to pick up the angle drill. When I install the PCV for the wire runs I am using the truss holders and some of the places will be tight so this drill will fit in between the ribs well. When I got back I went ahead and ran the PVC since UPS was still not here yet. These truss holders work well but they can be hard to fine. Paul said he had to order his online. I was able to get them at Lowes by my house but I have tried to get them at others that didn't have them. While I was at the hangar picking up the drill I was digging thru a parts box and found a bulkhead fitting with one nut and sleeve so I could at least start this end of the pitot tube. I moved the slack down to the Pitot end and then pulled enough out to get the sleeve and nut on and flare the end. I think I hold the highest number of reflares due to forgetting to put the sleeve and nuts on before but not today damit! Good thing too because this was my last piece of 1/4 inch tubing so I didn't have the extra length to redo any of it. Next I used my spring tubing bender to bend the service loop. Not enough room between these ribs to use a bender and this loop has to be tight and along the front spar to work to allow clearance from the main torque tube. Funny how when you look at it from the front or top without the tube in place it looks like it will be in the way. Once the tube was in place and you look down the rib holes you cant even see the pitot tubing but just a bit above the control tube. Plenty of room. Just as a last test I removed the jig to allow moving the aileron thru its complete range to see how much the torque tube moved forward towards the front spar. Still plenty of room. There is actually very little movement front to back thru its complete range. Now to just dimple that bottom skin and I can cleco it in place and get on to the right wing. The autopilot servo should go much quicker than the pitot tube. This website was built to document my work in compliance with the FAA requirements needed to certify my aircraft. My experiences and comments are by no means to be considered as instructions on how to build any aircraft.