Monday February 19, 2007
Left Elevator, Wing Main Spar Tie Downs
(0.5 Hours Left Elevator, 5.5 Hours Wings)
6.0 Hours Total

The first thing I did in the shop today was to cut the flange off of the E-705 end rib on my left elevator, as recommended by Bruce Reynolds at Van's Aircraft. We've been thinking that the flange is a bit out of whack and was pushing the spar outwards, preventing the control horn from seating properly.

Sure enough, with the now flange-less rib back in place, the control horn clecoed to both rib and spar perfectly. Vans is sending me a new rib, but it will be at least the end of the week before I see it.

So, I got back to work on the wings.

I started to work on the tie down posts that mount to the main wing spars. Basically, they're a vertical post with a threaded hole on the bottom that will be accessible from the bottom of the wing. Some sort of eye bolt will get screwed into the hole to provide a place to tie down the wing.

Here I've fabricated the four spacers that I will use. I cut these to size out of a 12" bar of this material. They will provide spacing between the tie down post and the web of the spar.

I went to the hardware store and purchased a 1" hole cutter to make these lightening holes in the spacers. They turned out to be a little bit larger than 1" diameter, but I think they are fine.

Here you see how everything goes together. The piece on the left is the tie down post. I still need to tap (i.e. create the threads) the end of it for the eye bolt that will hang below the wing. The spacers I fabricated go between the spar web and the tie down post, which sits on top of the hole mess. In this picture, I've drilled all eight bolt holes.

Now with the tie down post in place.

And here I've done the other wing.

Using a nutplate as a guide, I drilled and countersunk rivet holes through the tie down bar and spacers. These will be used to attach four nutplates.

Finally, I prepped and primed the tie down bars and the four spacers. I also spot primed the countersinks on the main spar where the anodizing had been removed.

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