Brief Description: Drilled for rear spar bolts and added spar rivets
While I was at the airport for 8.5 hours, I can really only count 6.5 hours because of a one hour trip to Aircraft Spruce and another hour talking with onlookers. Today was the first day of the Planes of Fame Air Show at Chino and the place was crawling with curious bystanders -- some educated but many not. I was glad to show my project, but it does have the effect of slowing down progress. My first task was to complete the extra rivets starting at the wing root (top and bottom) on the left wing. Back when I did modifications, I remembered to put A5 rivets every 20mm as called for in the modification plans. The left wing didn't get the same treatment, until today. Next I wanted to fasten the rear spars to the attach plates, which requires a fair amount of checking and cross checking to see that the angle of both wings is identical. The next step is to measure to a fixed point on each wing tip from the center line near the horizontal stabilizer. I used the elevator horn as my fixed point. The plans say the wings should be 50mm +/- of each other. When I was done, they were within 11mm -- a mere 1/4 inch. I feel really good about that level of precision, given all the variables at play. With everything clamped down, I step drilled up to 5/16 for the rear spar bolts and torqued the right one only. I'm short a couple of washers so I'll go back and take care of the left wing on a future trip. My last project was to set up the ailerons for rigging. I checked the neutral alignment and then centered the dual sticks using nylon straps gently pulling each stick out from the center. This aligned the torque tube (6-B-17-4) so I'm ready to start fabricating my cable ends.
