Left wing top skin riveting complete [12.5 hours]

Sporadic activity on the left wing top skin over the past week+ finally led to completion of the riveting. All back riveted once again, really happy with the results and just four drill outs over the entire wing. For this wing, I made a change to the J stiffener overlap area. There is a gap in the overlap area, I have no idea why Van’s don’t have you cut the “long” stiffener a bit longer to cover through this gap. When it is riveted, there is a slight transition visible on the top skin. I made up a shim using a spare piece of J stiffener, match drilling it from the top skin and dimpling it to nest in-between the top skin and the “short” J stiffener. Changed the rivets in this area to AN426AD3-4’s and that took care of the problem. I’m not going to bother fitting one to the right wing, not worth drilling out a bunch of rivets for that.

I installed the flap and aileron gap fairings, conduit and air lines for Pitot (green) and Angle-of-Attack (blue). The conduit and air lines fitted perfectly through the custom 3D printed nylon supports. I re-checked the pitot mast arrangement, and changed a bracket I had made to go between the mast mount and the adjacent rib so that nutplates and a couple of #6 screws are used instead of rivets. This so that it is remove-able in the off chance it ever has to be replaced in the future.

  • w40g
    w40g
    Gap between J stiffener and large top skin
  • w40h
    w40h
    Shim made up to fill gap. Short J stiffener overlays all open holes in this picture.
  • w40a
    w40a
    Left wing with half of the top skin rivets done
  • w40b
    w40b
    Left wing top skin riveting complete
  • w40c
    w40c
    Left wing top skin riveting complete
  • w40d
    w40d
    Conduit, pitot, AoA lines in left wing
  • w40e
    w40e
    Conduit, pitot, AoA lines in left wing
  • w40f
    w40f
    Checking pitot mast arrangement in left wing
  • whynnie
    whynnie
    Rest in peace old friend

Started flaps [8.5 hours]

In-between left wing top skin riveting sessions, I’ve started on the flaps. Left flap parts are de-burred and cleco’d together, except for the trailing edge, ready for match drilling. There’s quite a bit of de-burring / preparation time for all of the parts in each flap.

  • w39e
    w39e
    Trimming flap ribs
  • w39a
    w39a
    Left flap skeleton, skins
  • w39b
    w39b
    Left flap skins
  • w39c
    w39c
    Left flap assembled for match drilling
  • w39d
    w39d
    Left flap assembled for match drilling

Left wing top skin riveting, fuel tank pressure testing [5.0 hours]

Finished the right wing gap fairings, and checked out the 20mm conduit fit through the custom 3D printed nylon clips. The conduit supports work great. We’re about half way through the left wing top skin riveting, been a bit slow this week due to “Rosie’s” availability.

Meanwhile, I’ve started on the flaps. I’ve also started pressure testing the fuel tanks, which I cheated on by outsourcing the construction. Pictured is the right main tank with a simple water manometer attached. 28 inches of water is around 1 psi. The actual water level on the manometer goes up and down by a few inches as the temperature changes throughout the day.

  • w38a
    w38a
    Right wing gap fairings complete, wiring conduit fitted
  • w38b
    w38b
    Wiring conduit in right wing
  • w38c
    w38c
    Left wing top skin partly riveted
  • w38d
    w38d
    Pressure testing right main fuel tank