The right wing is pretty much a repeat of the left wing, although it goes quite a bit faster having the experience completing the first one. Not as much to write and I didn't take quite as many pictures as the left wing.
Total Construction Time: 132 hours
October 18, 2006 (1 hour)
Starting to work on the right wing. Cleco'ed the ribs to the main spar and made the aileron alignment tool out of some aluminum angle.
October 19, 2006 (3 hours)
Decided the primer coat on five of the ribs was a little light, so pulled them off and reshot them. Then went ahead and riveted all the ribs to the main spar and cleco'ed the rear spar in place.
October 20, 2006 (1 hour)
Riveted the rear spar to the ribs.
October 21, 2006 (2 hours)
Dressed out and Alodined the smilies I accidentally made to the inside of the spar. Attached the angle to the outboard rib, then hung the right wing on the jig. Cleco'ed the top skins to the wing assembly.
During the afternoon Alex Peterson took me up for my first RV ride in his RV-6A. That was awesome - thanks Alex! I was amazed at the climb performance, speed, as well as how we went from level to a 45 degree bank in the blink of an eye during a maximum rate bank. Very motivating to keep on bucking those rivets.
October 22, 2006 (7 hours)
Cut the J-stringers to length. Then match drilled all the top skin holes. Later drilled all the holes for the J-stringers. Then attached the bottom skins, match drilled them and took them back off. Next I cleco'ed the leading edge ribs to the skin and cleco'ed it all to the wing. Finally I cut the splice plate to size and started positioning it at the inboard rib. This second wing is clearly going to go a lot faster than the first, now that I know what I'm doing!
October 23, 2006 (2 hours)
Decided to take the blue plastic off the two left wing bottom skins, deburr the rivet holes and then cleco to the wing. I also finished positioning the splice plate and inboard rib and match drilled all the holes in the leading edge skin. Already time to start the tank.
October 24, 2006 (2 hours)
Started work on the tank by attaching the ribs to the tank skin. It went much easier than the first, but still had to work at it to get those ribs in.
October 25, 2006 (1 hour)
Deburred the edges of the tank Z-brackets and measured for holes.
October 27, 2006 (1 hour)
Match drilled the tank stiffeners and drilled one of the bolt holes in each of the tank Z-brackets.
October 28, 2006 (8 hours)
Drilled the other two bolt holes in the tank Z-brackets, then drilled and countersunk the nutplate holes. Treated the brackets with Alodine and then attached the nutplates. Also countersunk the holes for the three nutplates on the spar web and riveted the nutplates to the spar. Next I placed the tank assembly on the wing assembly and drilled the rivet holes in the tank brackets using the Checkoway method. I also match drilled the spar to outboard leading edge rib rivet holes as well as the tank skin to rib holes. Next I took both the outboard and tank assemblies off the wing. With Aaron's help I match drilled all the tank baffle holes. I also deburred the tank stiffener angles. Finally I put the outboard and tank leading edge assemblies back on and drilled the holes in the splice plate.
October 30, 2006 (2 hours)
Deburred the tank access plate and stiffener ring, cut the reinforcing plates to final size and drilled the holes in the reinforcing angle. Also removed the tank from the wing and peeled back the blue plastic along the baffle rivet line to get ready to countersink the holes.
October 31, 2006 (2 hours)
Countersunk the holes in the tank skin along the baffle. Also drilled the holes in the tank attachment bracket, then match drilled the holes in the reinforcement plates and end ribs. Then I cut and deburred the access hole in the inboard rib.
November 1, 2006 (3 hours)
Drilled the holes in the tank access plate, inboard rib and reinforcing ring. I then countersunk and dimpled the holes for the nutplates and riveted them in place. I also drilled and countersunk the holes for the fuel cap flange and quick drain. Next step is to take it all apart and deburr and dimple the skins and ribs in preparation for prosealing it all together.
November 2, 2006 (2 hours)
Removed the plastic from the tank skin, disassembled the tank assembly, then deburred the skins and rivet holes and roughened the inside of the skins where the ribs and baffle will be attached.
November 3, 2006 (3 hours)
Deburred the rivet holes and roughened the rib edges, also drilled the hole for the vent tube fitting. Later dimpled the skins, ribs and stiffeners.
November 4, 2006 (6 hours)
Cleaned the skins and stiffeners good prior to prosealing. Had to re-dimple the skin and stiffeners because I realized at the last minute that I hadn't used the tank dimple dies (doh!). Then I prosealed and riveted the stiffeners, drain valve and fuel cap flange in place.
November 5, 2006 (1 hour)
Re-dimpled the top side of the skins and also the ribs using the tank dimple dies.
November 8, 2006 (2 hours)
Pro-sealed and riveted the middle rib in the right tank.
November 9, 2006 (2 hours)
Pro-sealed and riveted a second rib in the right tank.
November 11, 2006 (5 hours)
Pro-sealed and riveted the other three interior tank ribs.
November 12, 2006 (1 hour)
Trimmed the tank attach angle to ensure the rivets in the skin and end rib don't conflict, then primed the angle.
November 14, 2006 (2 hours)
Prosealed and riveted the outboard end tank rib.
November 15, 2006 (2 hours)
Prosealed and riveted the inboard end tanks rib. Also ordered my fuselage kit today.
November 16, 2006 (1 hour)
Cleaned up the shop a bit, then deburred the holes and edges of the tank baffle.
November 18, 2006 (4 hours)
Cut, bent, flared and installed the tank vent line and fuel pickup tubes and fittings, as well as bent the float wire to shape. Then prosealed over all the fittings and touched up a few other spots. Also roughened the faying surfaces of the rear baffle and cleaned all the surfaces. All set to install the tank baffle!
November 19, 2006 (5 hours)
Prosealed and riveted the tank baffle. Later in the evening I drilled the platenut rivet holes in the splice plate, then took apart the outboard leading edge assembly and removed the top wing skins.
November 20, 2006 (1 hour)
Deburred the outboard rib and J-stringer rivet holes. Also dimpled the outboard ribs. Van's is due to ship my fuselage kit the week of January 8th.
November 21, 2006 (10 hours)
Marathon day! Deburred and dimpled the J-stringers, outboard leading edge skins, both top wing skins and the wing walk doubler plate.
November 22, 2006 (6 hours)
Primed the leading edge ribs and skins, top skins, wing walk doubler and splice plate, and J-stringer. Later in the evening I tried testing the tank and discovered a very slow leak around the vent line fitting at the inboard rib. Mixed up some more proseal and added it all around the fitting.
November 23, 2006 (2 hours)
Set up fuel tank leak test. Took some time to get the air from leaking around the fuel filler cap, but once I did I'm now leak free! Also dimpled all the main ribs and rear spar.
November 24, 2006 (4 hours)
Ran my deburring tool in all the dimples in the rear spar. Then countersunk the rivet holes in the main spar. Then I riveted the leading edge ribs and skins together and cleco'ed the assembly to the main spar.
November 25, 2006 (4 hours)
Riveted the leading edge skin and ribs to the spar. Also riveted the nut plates to the splice plate and mounted the tank to the wing. Finally I cleco'ed the top skins in place and am all ready to start riveting.
November 26, 2006 (2 hours)
Tracy helped me rivet the inboard skin in place. Went really quick!
November 28/29/30, 2006
Noticed that the inboard skin at the main spar was sitting proud of the fuel tank skin. Took the fuel tank off and saw that there was a gap along a fair amount of the length of the inboard skin, up to approx. 0.015" wide. While I'm thinking about how to deal with this, also thinking about building a flat surface for building my flaps and ailerons.
December 1, 2006 (10 hours)
While Van's said to leave the gap between the skin and the spar as is, I decided to follow Alex Peterson's suggestion and drilled out most of those rivets. Then I used my pop-rivet dimple dies to get a better fit and spent a lot of time re-aligning both skins and the spar to get a better fit. Once I finally felt I had good alignment, Tracy helped my buck both the top skins to the ribs, main spar and J-stringers. Got most of the gap out and everything looks really good now. Later I squeezed most of the rivets along the rear spar. I have one small scratch in the main spar I want to dress out and then I'll take the wing off of the stands!
December 2, 2006 (1 hour)
Spent some time in the morning dressing out a small nick in the spar flange then reattaching the tank. Then we took the wing off the stand. Later I took down the wing stands.
April 14, 2008 (3 hours)
Been a long time since I've done anything with the wings. I'm waiting for it to get warmer before I do much more with the canopy, so it's a good time to get back to riveting the bottom skins on. This evening Aaron helped me deburred the two bottom skins then I dimpled all the rivet holes.
April 15, 2008 (1 hour)
Spent some time cleaning the garage. Then I took the two bottom skins outside, scrubbed them with scotchbrite pads, then brought them back inside and primed them.
April 17, 2008 (2 hours)
Installed the autopilot roll servo and the conduit for all my electrical wires.
April 18, 2008 (3 hours)
Beveled the inboard bottom skin where the top skin overlaps it at the spar and then shot primer along the length of the overlap. I then removed the fuel tank to dress and prime a small nick, then reinstalled it and final torqued all the bolts. Next I put a couple of dabs of RTV on the conduit at each rib to keep it in place. Finally I put the inboard skin back in place and am ready to start riveting.
April 19, 2008 (4 hours)
Riveted the inboard bottom skin. Took a long time doing it solo, but started to pick up speed after a while.
April 20, 2008 (1 hour)
It was a perfect spring day, so spent most of the day doing other stuff around the yard. I had a couple of minor dings from the bucking bar that I hit with my scotchbrite wheel on my die grinder then hit them with some primer.
April 21, 2008 (3 hours)
Riveted all but the outer three bays of the outboard bottom skin.
April 22, 2008 (2 hours)
Finished riveting the right wing bottom skins.