Wednesday March 12, 2008
Fuel Tank Drilling (Fuel Tanks)
0.8 Hours

My camera's battery pack was empty last night, so I have no pictures for you, sorry.

I continued to follow Dan Checkoway's method for drilling the Z-brackets that hold the fuel tank to the spar. First, I drilled the rib to baffle to bracket holes on the one inboard rib that was exposed. Next, I removed the leading edge section, revealing the outboard fuel tank rib. I drilled those holes and then removed the fuel tank skin and interior ribs from the assembly, providing access to drill the baffle to bracket holes in the interior section of the fuel tank. The center lines I had drawn on the brackets showed right through the centers of the pre-punched baffle holes, so I know things are aligning pretty well.

I need to have the larger clecoes before I proceed with any further tank drilling. In the mean time, I'm going to start fabricating the fuel tank stiffeners from the thin angle pieces that Vans provides.

It was nice to finally log some real airplane building time!

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