Sunday June 29, 2008
Right Wing Aileron Gap Faring, Flap Brace, Skin Prep (Wings)
8.5 Hours

This morning, I started working on the aileron gap faring and flap brace. Here is the flap brace (after slight trimming indicated on the plans) clecoed for drilling.

I drilled, deburred, and riveted the aileron gap faring in place. I was able to squeeze all of these rivets. I had to make a few small trims to avoid interference with the hinge brackets and their rivets.

I deburred and riveted the flap brace to the rear spar. I had to shoot and buck these solo, but it turned out quite well. The brace will get riveted to the bottom skins when they are permanently attached.

Then I worked on getting the wire conduit in place--it was a royal pain here in the wing root where the ribs are closely spaced under the wing walk.

Eventually, with lots of physical effort and cursing, I got the thing in place and dabbed some sealant in the rib holes to hopefully help with vibration.

Then, I worked on preparing the right wing's bottom skins for installation. I used the soldering iron to melt off the plastic from the rivet lines, deburred the holes, deburred the edges, and dimpled everything.

While I was at it, I drilled the inspection hole covers.

Repeated all of the same steps with the outboard bottom skin...this all takes quite a while.

Finally, I riveted nutplates on the inspection holes on both bottom skins.

It was quite a long day in the shop today!

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