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Pete's RV-8 Web Site
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Date: 5-15-2008
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Number of Hours: 0.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: RV-8 Wing Construction
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By late spring in 2008, I was getting serious about the RV-8 project and had studied the various instructional videos and manuals. While the empennage construction videos made the initial project work look straight forward, I decided to go ahead and purchase the wing construction DVDs to look a little deeper. I suspected the wings would be more of a challenge, particularly with the fuel tanks. A section of the leading edge of each wing is, of course, a wet section requiring that all rivets, ribs, inspection plates, fuel fittings, etc. be sealed with a two-part epoxy substance (Proseal) to make that part of the wing an air-tight fuel tank. The wings also pose a bit more of a riveting challenge. That is, reaching in behind the larger skins to buck rib rivets. Much of the wing construction does require two workers, one to operate the gun and another to handle the bucking bar. Also, there is a bit of work to complete on the wing spars and any errors on these pieces can be very expensive.
My biggest concern with the wings as with the empennage was whether I could get a quality rivet job on the structure. Of all the skills required to build the RV-8, I expected riveting to be the most challenging. For me, this has proven true though in recent days (June 2009) I have become more confident and satisfied with my results.
Regarding the GeoBeck wing videos, I have again found them helpful. Since I have not yet completed my wing kit, I cannot make a final determination as to exactly how accurate they are based on the current prepunched kit from Van's. My current impression remains positive but as a reminder, use Van's manuals as the primary source and the DVDs as supporting reference material.
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Wing Construction
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