January 5, 2012

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It's time (long overdue) to get back to work on the airplane.  I am committed to fly it this year.

I figure a good place to start is to temporarily install the wings and set the incidence, so I put the wings on saw horses on either side of the airplane positioned to slide into place.

 

 

 

With a little shimming (with towels) and adjusting saw horses, the wings moved into position without a lot of heavy lifting.

 

left wing

 

It took an unexpected amount of time to sort out the wires and other stuff transitioning from the wing to the fuselage.  While I had labeled things correctly, I hadn't necessarily considered where things needed to be routed.

 

When the wings were moved into place, I found it difficult to push the (somewhat undersized) temporary bolts through the spar.  After several tries and looking into the holes in the spar using the little mirror in the picture, I discovered there was some primer overspray in the bolt holes.  That was enough to interfere with the fit.  It came out nicely with a little lacquer thinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found that even these slightly undersized bolts were difficult to install through the spars.  I'm not looking forward to the tight-fit bolts that go in at final assembly. The bolts are hard enough, but getting to the nuts will be really tough because the landing gear weldments are in the way.

 

 

 

It takes some careful measurement and delicate movement of the wings to get them exactly where they need to be.

 

 

When the airplane has been leveled and the wings moved into position and the all the angles measured several times, it's time to step back and check and measure it all again.  I was really worried about making a mistake at this point.

 

O.K., satisfied with the positioning, I drilled the pilot holes that will lock in the incidence.

 

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