12/01/2008 - .50 Hours
Assembled the center section and riveted one F-716 rib.

12/03/2008 - 1.5 Hours
Continued riveting... half done now.

12/04/2008 - 2 Hours
Finished riveting the bottom skin on. Flipped it over and then cleco'd on the floor skins.


12/6/2008 - 3 Hours
Fit the F-715 ribs, drilled and deburred. Other various things and then cleanup of the shop so that I can star work on th wingtips.


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WING WORK
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12/7/2008 - 4 Hours
Shifted gears and started working on the wing tips since my position lights and strobe arrived from Jeff Bordelon. Basically followed the directions. Put the aileron jig in to align the aileron, fit the wingtip to the right wing and had to cut down a little on the flange and then remove some material from the leading edge to get it to fit better. Next up was ensuring I had a 1/4" gap near the aileron. Drilled all the holes and then fit the rib, made the aft mark, removed the tip and then setup my holes to be drilled ever 1.5" inches along the rib. Drilled the holes into the tip, aligned the rib and match drilled. Countersunk the tip and then riveted (after rib debur/prime) the rip to the tip.
I still have yet to drill the hole to final size and install platenuts so that I can use screws to remove the tip. Will do soon.

 

12/8/2008- 2.5 Hours
Did the above but to the other wing. Cut my time down considerably too. Ordered the platenuts and screws from Van's today. Will probably start drilling the holes to #30 and then the #40 holes for the platenuts while waiting on my order.

Neither one of these is perfect. The right outboard trailing edge is a little lower that the inboard and aileron/flap. The left is straight but the inboard edge nearest the aileron is not level with the aileron. Darn, there goes my chances of winning a trophy... wait a second... oh yeah... I don't care about that!


12/9/2008 - 2 Hours
Removed the right tip, drilled all holes for the platenuts, countersunk all holes for the platenuts and the screws. Next, deburred the wing where the tip fits and dimpled too. Riveted on 8 platenuts (I only have a limited supply - on order). Started the process on the left tip... drilled all holes.

12/10/2008 - 1.5 Hours
Left tip done to the same point as the right (see above)

12/11/2008 - 2 Hours
Put the aileron bellcrank back together and torqued. Then started on the LED Nav light and strobe light install. Trimmed down the plates to fit, drilled holes for screws, drilled large holes for strobe body and also for the LED heatsink. Rather easy. Only did this on the right side so far.


12/13/2008 - 5 Hours
Whew... what a long day. I split it up in 2.5 hour chunks. In between times, went out to lunch with Jackie and Liv then went bowling with them. It was fun... Shop time consisted of fitting the plexiglass tip lense and putting the final fit of the LED's.  Nothing difficult here... just time consuming trying to get that perfect fit. Also installed the platenuts that will hold the tip lense on. As you can see, I lit up the LED's, freakin' sweet man!  The strobe is a little cock-eyed, that is due to only having one nut hold it up there...it will be straight at final install time. Speaking of which.. All of this will go together at the end of the project. I am going to leave the tips off for storage.
I hope to finish off the left side tomorrow.



12/14/2008 - 4 Hours
Finished off the left LED and lense. Waiting on platenuts to actually finish off the tips. Once done, then store everything and put together near the end of the project. I can now find a storage place for the wings!


12/16/2008 - 1 Hour
Received the platenuts to finish off the tips. Riveted all on. Now time to go back to fuselage work. 

12/20/2008 - Moved wings to Rob Johnsons hangar at BMIwith the help of Chad Jensen, Terry Wendling, John Visel, Mitch (son) and of course Rob. Thanks everyone!

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END OF WING WORK
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12/17/2008 - 3 Hours
Started off by installing the longerons which 1st entails cutting the notch on the aft end of each.

Next, with the help of Mitch, we setup the aft fuse and the center section on saw horses so that they could be mated together. I shimmed everything out as best I could and then attempted the alignment/mating process by myself. This took quite a bit of time. Some 2 hours with plenty of expletives. I finally got to a point where I could install a cleco. I was so happy I had to take a picture of that lone cleco!


12/18/2008 - 1 Hour
Installed the side skins. Note the good angles! I was all worried about this when I bent them months ago. Man what a relief that everything fits!


12/22/2008 - 2.5 Hours
Drilled the arm rests to the skin and bulkheads.
Made the bends in the aft portion of the side skins. This turned out to be quite easy. First attempt on both was more than good enough. Any gap in the skin is from the dimples being there. It will all be fine once all skins are dimpled.


12/23/2008 - 1.5 Hours
Clamped both longerons to the skins so that they are flush then drilled the left longeron to the skins. Holy crap that was a lot of drill action. All I could think of was how many holes there would be to machine countersink. I started on the right side but gave up about 1/4 into it as I have a sore arm.


12/26/2008 - 1 Hour
Cut the longerons to provide the necessary 3/4" distance to the edge of the side skins. Also, started on the F704L or F904L straps. The directions call it 704 but the drawings say 904... anyway I cut two of the four.


12/27/2008 - 4 Hours
Finished off the 704L's. Then started on the firewall. Clamped it per directions and did all the work for that section. One thing to note on this section... ensure the front of the firewall is 5/8 from the edge of the skin before drilling the two holes on the bottom skin that set the distance between the firewall and bulkhead. The directions don't indicate this until after you drill the two holes which doesn't make sense.. at least not to me. No indication in the directions if I am supposed to drill the bottom skin to the firewall... will research.
Also marked the centerline on the F913 longerons that go between 704 and the firewall.


12/28-30/2008 - 4 Hours
Drilled F713 longerons to the side skins. Made the brackets that go  on these longs (1st pic), then did the lower longerons. Also, drilled the bottom skin to the firewall and to center section.