Brief Description: Pre Wing Close Inspections - Dace Kirk
Dace Kirk of Phoenix Composites came over to inspect my handy work. I am planning to use him and some of his crew to assist in the wing close. Dace was extremely helpful. He has developed his own set of procedures for wing closing that are different that what is in the manuals. He advised me to seal the forward edge of the wing spar to prevent fuel from wicking into the spar through the roving threads that hold the unidirectional tegether. He also recommended adding ribs near the wing tips between the foward and aft wing spars. The G1 plans do not call for a rib near the tip leaving over three feet of span with no rib. Dace also suggested laying up the rear spar face prior to wing close. After wing close the upper wing panel will be tied into the rear spar with addtional overlapping laminates. Finally, Dace likes to add cap strips to all the wing ribs and false spars except the one rib on centerline. I ultimately have decided I like his method as I think it will result in a stronger wing and it will save doing some of the post wing close inside rib and spar laminating.
This re-thinking will add some significant work to the project but I like the end product so I will probably follow all of Dace's advice. He was very nice and did not push his ideas hard. He said we could close it just like it is if I wanted to.
