November 15, 2004 HOME

It was time to close the right wing, so I made up a little list of things that weren't yet ready.  Finally, I was at a point where that list only had a few small items on it and some of those only apply to the left wing.  The right wing is where I decided to put the autopilot roll servo.  The left wing will have the VOR antenna in the tip and will also have to be drilled for the angle of attack (AOA) ports.

One thing I decided to do before closing was to install nutplates for the last inspection plate that gives access to the aileron bellcrank and the autopilot servo.  They are just clecoed into place here and ready to rivet.

After checking all the holes for proper size and dimpling, I clecoed most of the skin in place.

It's ready to rivet!

Just before riveting, I fit and drilled the fiberglass wingtip to the right wing as well.

 

   

Next, I final drilled the wingtip, including drilling it for nutplates and began the process of fitting the nutplates.  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to maintain the rather close tolerances for alignment, but it came out just fine.

In case I never covered it before, you simply cleco the nutplate from the bottom and drill the first attach hole.  That gives the alignment needed for the second hole.  When you are done, you move the nutplate to the bottom and rivet it in place.

The wingtip is attached and ready to screw in place, but before it is finally installed, the fit between the aileron and the trailing inboard edge of the wingtip have to be established.  The arrow points to a close-to-fit area that only needs about 1/16th of material removed.  I am going to rivet the skin before I finish fitting the wingtip.

 

 

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