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Larry Winger's 601XL Project
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Date: 6-28-2010
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Number of Hours: 1.75
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Botched the root doubler
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In placing the angles that go on either side of nose rib #1, I went too fast and took a shortcut that cost me quite a bit of time and considerable frustration. Instead of marking the rib on the doubler and removing it before drilling, I decided to drill it in place. NOTE: There are very few legitimate shortcuts in homebuilding an aircraft. Most of them lead to redoing parts. Back to my sad tale. Because I was using my close-quarters angle drill to go though an angle into the doubler, I didn't have the control I thought. Before I knew what had happened, I had slipped out of my #40 pilot hole and had drilled an extra hole through both parts. Even though it violated edge distance from the real hole, I plowed ahead, thinking I might get a special dispensation from ZAC because of the thickness of the material in that place. My next, and final, error was to drill the top- and bottom-most holes too close to the spar caps on the main spar. Thankfully I didn't drill all the way through when they were in place, or I might have nicked my spar cap. That would have been a complete show stopper, probably requiring the rebuilding of my entire main spar. MORAL OF THE STORY: When you are tired or in a hurry, stop for the night. The life you save may be your own.
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A very costly error
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