December 8, 2004 HOME

It's on to the wingtips.  In truth, it's a little here and a little there.  Seems I've been avoiding the wingtips.  I think it's because there is fiberglass work to do there.  Did I tell you why I didn't want to build a composite airplane?  Hmmm, might have something to do with how much I love working with fiberglass...

 

So, I installed the wingtips and marked out a line to rough cut the fit between the tip and aileron.  Plans call out 1/4 inch minimum.

 

 

 

Now for the rough cut.  I just used a cutoff wheel on a die grinder.  It wasn't any too straight, so it will need some sanding.  The fit turned out to be exactly 1/4 inch after sanding, so I was happy.

 

On the second wingtip, I laid out the rivet holes for the internal rib.  I set the rivets a little closer than called for in the plans to avoid vibration problems with the fiberglass and the rivet heads.

 

 

   

Gary Klein came by and I "allowed" him to drill, deburr and rivet the ribs in the wingtips.  Gary got to eat a little fiberglass dust in the process.  I was willing to let him work on some more things I didn't like to do, but for some reason, he left early.  I've invited him back since, but he must be too busy...

I match drilled the wingtip VOR antenna to the support strip inside the wingtip, positioning a far forward as seemed reasonable.

After sanding the fiberglass and the antenna with #80 grit, I mixed up some glue and applied liberal amounts to the surfaces.  That is all that will keep the loose end of the antenna from flopping around.

To finish it all up, all I had to do was install the nutplates.  Here they are installed through the antenna.  That serves to ground the antenna to the fuselage while keeping it in place.

 

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