Monday March 10, 2008
Wing Reconstruction (Wings)

I've been puttering around in the shop a bit over the last week. I managed to get the wing to this state prior to this evening, with the top skins and leading edge section clecoed into place. I've also checked the spar for alignment and done a check for twist.

Tonight, I re-bolted the fuel tank Z-brackets to the spar.

I had just constructed these brackets prior to packing everything up for the move.

Next, I went through the arduous task of clecoing the fuel tank together. It's a tough job because the fuel tank skin is thick and it's difficult to get the ribs all the way down into the nose of the tank.

Here's a slightly hallucinogenic shot of the inside of the tank with a few of the ribs installed.

Next, I set the fuel tank in place on the spar. This is pretty cool (again)!

I'm now exactly to the point that I left off last April. And once again, I have the same issue to deal with. You can see that the forward edge of the fuel tank does not line up perfectly with the outboard leading edge section.

From further back. It looks like about the same amount of deviation as I saw in April '07.

The thought occurred to me that I could cleco the bottom edge of the fuel tank into the nut plates in the spar. That process should pull the fuel tank down tighter onto the spar in a configuration similar to what it will be like in the final iteration. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find my larger size clecos, so I am forced to order some new ones.

In the meantime, I should be able to proceed with the drilling of the Z-brackets from the fuel tank baffle, since the horizontal alignment of the fuel tank is perfect.

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