Well, I expected some leakage but the balloon was practically flat!! I did the whole soapy water thing and it turned out to be the inflation valve screwed into the drain that was leaking. Phew! And that was the *good* thing that happened tonight. My next task was to drill the spar attach brackets for the #8 screw nutplates. Went ok, but the edge distance for all of the rivets on the 'top' side hole is just about at the acceptable limit: except one. The second inboard bracket (the first that has nutplates), the edge of the countersink is right on the edge of the bracket; below the 2D recommendation for edge distance. I've emailed a photo to Vans to see what they say, but I suspect I won't much like the answer :-( Never mind, of all the brackets, that one would be the easiest to replace: I think. Nonetheless, I carried on and drilled the skin attach holes to #19 and then dimpled #8.
