Wednesday February 21, 2007
Wing Rear Spar Prep (Wings)
4.5 Hours

I started tonight by finishing the trims on W-707G and W-707D. I used my Vixen file to get close to the trim line and then smoothed everything out with the Scotchbrite wheel on my bench grinder. I think they came out very well.

Next, I spent a while edge prepping the W-707G/D parts. The inside area of the forked pieces were particularly tough to get done. I spent almost two and a half hours just getting to this point.

Then I clecoed the W-707E/F stiffeners to the rear spars and match drilled those holes. I don't know if I had a dull drill bit or what, but the first few holes I did were a mess. The drill bit started to wander and I ended up slightly enlarging a few holes in the spar. I switched to a different bit in my cordless drill and the rest of the drilling was uneventful.

I think the holes will be OK, but I'll take a careful look at them when I go to rivet. If I'm not happy, then I'll call Vans and see what I should do.

Finally, I drilled out the aileron control holes in the stiffener plates with a unibit and then tried to file them out to full size with a round file. I'm going to the hardware store to try to obtain a small sanding drum for my die grinder that will fit in those holes to finish them off.

With the enlarged holes on the spar and scratching the piss out of the W-707E's while trying to enlarge the big hole, I wasn't terribly happy with my performance last tonight. My original goal for the evening was to have all of these parts primed so I could rivet them all together tonight. Because of this unrealistic goal, I rushed more than I should have and my work suffered for it. It's key with this project to always take your time. The plane isn't going to be finished in one night and it's better to have to revise your "schedule" than to screw something up.

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