Last night I was solo. I borrowed Vern's bending brake so that I could bend the trailing edges of my main aileron skins. This picture shows one skin un-bent sitting in the bending brake, and the other skin already bent.



With the skins bent, I started assembling and match drilling everything. Surprising (to me, at least), was how easy the counterweight drilled. It is a steel tube that runs on the inside of the leading edge.



To end the night, I disassembled the aft part of the ailerons so that I can drill the remaining holes in the counterweight.

Last night I was solo in the shop so I did some more aileron work.

I started by riveting the stiffeners to the aileron main skins. I used the back riveting method.



After that I pulled the blue plastic off the remaining aileron components (ribs, spars, leading edge skins). Then I made the four spar reinforcement plates, match drilled the hinges to the spar, deburred and primed everything, then assembled the reinforcement plates to the spars.



Then I started preparing the ribs and other components for assembly before I quit a little early to clean up the shop - lots of dust and shavings on the floor. Here's a picture of all the aileron components except for the skins and counterbalance pipes.

Yesterday I got some unexpected time in the shop. I was solo, so I couldn't start riveting wing skins, so I decided to pull out the ailerons. I actually started the ailerons just over a year ago, on November 23, 2008. Back on that day I cut out all the stiffeners and shaped them. Yesterday I pulled blue plastic off the skins, match drilled, deburred holes and edges on the stiffeners and the skins, dimpled stiffeners and the skins, and primed everything. Next solo session I can rivet the stiffeners on.

Here is a picture of the aileron components before working on them (except the stiffeners are already cut):



Here is a picture of what I got done:



As an aside, I want to emphasize how much work this really is. From one picture to the next above, it may not seem like much has happened, but I spent a solid 3.5 hours working yesterday. There are two ailerons. Each aileron has 8 stiffeners for each face of the skin - two skin faces per aileron, so that is 32 stiffeners. Each stiffener has 7 rivet holes. That is 224 drilling operations. You drill half the holes, then you move clecos to the drilled holes and drill the holes that the clecos were originally in. Installing, moving, and removing clecos is a very time consuming process, and makes my hand cramp - you use a special set of pliers to install and remove clecos. Each edge of each of the 32 stiffeners and 2 skins must be smoothed out. Each side of each hole must be deburred. Since each rivet hole joins two pieces of metal together, that is 4 deburring operations per hole (one for each side of each skin), so 896 deburring operations. Then there is dimpling - the stiffeners can be dimpled with a pneumatic squeezer, which goes pretty quick, but is still 224 dimpling operations. The skins must be dimpled with a C-frame, which takes longer and is more taxing, since you line up the hole, whack with a hammer, move to the next hole, repeat. Again, another 224 holes on the skins. After all that, spraying the primer where two surfaces will mate is a quick and simple process. Let it dry for at least a day, then I can rivet.

Last night I finished riveting on the leading edge and attached the tank to the wing. The fit-up between the tank and leading edge had some pillowing, like my other wing and so many other builders experienced. To remedy this, dad and I drilled out 5 rivets on the top of the leading edge and installed shims between the skin and tank attach strip. After doing this, the tank fit the leading edge like a glove. We installed the fuel probe wire and installed the tank on the wing - there are a LOT of screws, and a lot of bolts, and my hand was cramping bad after finishing. We clecoed the top inboard skin on and called it a night.

BTW, I found out today we are having a little girl in April.

Last night I got dad out to the shop and we riveted the leading edge together. We then riveted it to the spar by the ribs - still need to rivet the skin to the spar. For the picture, we just set the tank on the wing to see how the joint is between it and the leading edge - it looks promising.





In slightly related news, my wife is pregnant with our first. This is relevant to this project, because I have decided to sell the project when I finish the wing kit. I know, I know, it seems like I am giving up on my dream, but I am not - I'm just putting it on hold for a while. Instead of having the project sit in my garage for 10+ years, I am going to sell it and free up some debt we have, hopefully before the baby arrives. In the future, I sincerely hope to revisit a home-built airplane. So that's the plan.

Finally, a leak free tank. The tank held 58" of water for over an hour, and even rose a small bit with the shop warming up. Now to just get dad out to the shop so we can start assembling the wing - hopefully next week.

Last night I finished prepping my last wing skin - the lower outboard one. Debur, dimple, prime:



I also (hopefully) repaired all the leaks in the tank. I replaced the two rivets that were leaking and also put a bead of sealant on the rear edges of the baffle like I did on the other tank. My baffle picture did not turn out, so I only got a picture of the two rivets removed. Hopefully will do a leak test next week.

Tonight I deburred, dimpled, and primed the bottom inboard skin. Only one skin left to prepare. Here is a stack of completed skins.


I put both top skins on the skeleton with just a few clecos, then marked the overlap. I used this mark to notch the inboard skin where they overlap. I cut the skin with a cutoff wheel, then finished the edges with files.


Next I moved on to leak testing the tank. Here is a picture of the completed tank.


I set up my U-Tube manometer to pressurize the tank and test for leaks.


My last tank was leak free - not the case this time! I tested using soapy water. I have three leaks - two along the rear baffle and one around a rivet for the back baffle. All three of these are easily fixed, and I will probably work on that next session.

Again, no pictures, but I got the other top skin deburred, dimpled, primed, and ready to rivet. I also did a few other small things around the shop, like put the last few fittings on the tank in preparation for leak testing.

I got dad out to the shop last night and we closed the fuel tank. Everything went smooth, but it's still a big crunch to get everything completed before the proseal really start setting up.

Again, no pictures this time. Even if I had had my camera, I couldn't have touched it because both of us were covered in proseal.

It was another solo night in the shop, so still no tank closure.

I finished the wing skeleton by dimpling all the holes in the ribs and rear spar and priming.

I deburred, dimpled, and primed the top inboard skin and the wing walk doubler. Sorry, no pictures - didn't have the camera and it is just more of the same - nothing exciting.

I worked solo last night, but got the leading edge clecoed together and ready to rivet on the next duo session.



Next, I removed the top skins from the wing skeleton, and then I then spent what seemed like forever deburring holes. There are a lot of holes on the wing skeleton. I also countersunk the remaining holes on the top side of the spar.

Hopefully the lull is over and I can start working on a regular basis again. I apparently missed an entry where I got a few small things done, and started countersinking the holes on the main spar:



Well, last night I finished countersinking the holes along the bottom side of the main spar, and deburred and primed all the holes on the bottom sides of the main ribs.



The initial plan for last night was to complete the tank, but I was out of popsicle sticks! These are a necessary tool when working with proseal, so I put off closing the tank for one more session. Instead, dad and I worked on prepping the leading edge for assembly. I deburred all the rivet holes in the ribs, then dimpled the holes and primed the ribs. I also installed the rivets on, deburred, dimpled, and primed the joint plate.



Then we deburred, dimpled and primed the leading edge skin. I don't remember the edge of the other one being so wavy after dimpling, but I am sure this will smooth out after riveting.



Here are some updated shots of the tank. All she needs is to have the rear baffle installed. The second shot shows the inboard bay of the tank, and all the stuff that goes in there (flop tube, anti-hang-up brackets for the flop tube, trap door, etc.)

I know I have been dragging my feet lately. This week was supposed to be the week I got back on track. However our dog, Bella, had become very ill and was hospitalized on Wednesday, July 1 due to high liver enzymes in the blood. We brought her home for the weekend since the vet was closed for the holidays and kept up a strict fluid, food, and medicine regiment. We took her back in yesterday morning for a progress blood test, and the test revealed that her liver was failing. In the matter of about 3 weeks, our happy little girl had wasted away, losing all of her energy, and losing more than a third of her body weight. We made the impossible decision to have her put down yesterday morning. I buried her in my dad's back yard in a nice little spot between some Crate Myrtles. We didn't even have her for 3 years, but she brightened our lives so much. I so looked forward to flying with her. It didn't help that yesterday was also the anniversary for my younger brother being killed in a car accident three years ago. I will try to resume work on the airplane next week.

Last night I got all the fittings installed in the end rib. One more proseal session and I should be done with the nasty stuff! Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I don't want to handle my camera with that stuff all over my hands.

Last night dad and I finally got back at the tank. We got the last rib installed. This is the inboard rib, so we squeezed the rivets instead of bucking them. We also installed the tank attach angle and reinforcement plate. Next time we will install all the plumbing fittings, flop tube, anti-hang-up bracket, a few other small parts, then the baffle. After that it will be time to leak test. Then the rest of the wing goes together quickly. Then it's on to control surfaces. Then I'm out of money and will be waiting until I can afford the fuselage... =D

I borrowed Vern's bending/cutting/flaring tools and fabricated my fuel return line and vent line for the tank.

This is the inboard end of the tank, where the lines will pass through the inboard rib, which is not installed yet. The large line is the fuel return, the small line is the vent.


This is the outboard-most bay of the tank, and is where the vent line terminates, since this will be the highest point in the tank. If you think about it, it makes sense to have the place where you fill the tank and the vent line at the highest point.


This is the center of the tank, and is where the fuel return terminates. I didn't terminate the fuel return in the inboard-most bay, even though it would be the shortest run. Why? Because I want the warm returned fuel to have a chance to cool back down before it gets to the fuel pickup.

Last night dad and I got the last interior rib and the outboard end rib installed. We also installed the cover plate for my misplaced hole on the baffle.

Last night dad and I got four of the five interior ribs installed.

Last night dad and I had our first proseal session on the left tank. We got all the stiffeners, the filler neck, and the drain flange installed. Ahhh, the smell of proseal and MEK, and the mess it makes...I had almost forgotten... =D