Sunday, February 28, 2016

Updated weights

Working on the second half of the wing is much easier since I just have to copy measurements from the other side.  Items accomplished last Sunday and today include:
* added tip and bracing to left wing
* added root rib and bracing to left wing
* made and added aileron linkage plates to left wing
* drilled and installed flap and aileron hinge pins to left wing trailing edge tube
* installed doublers and hinge pins to left wing flap and aileron tubes
* bent aileron trailing edge radius near the tip
* temporarily taped on the aileron and flap ribs
* weighed everything

Current weights (sans covering)
Tail 11.3
Struts 5.0
Stab 5.2
Nose 25.1
Left wing with flap 22.8
Right wing with flap/ail 25.1
Ribs 3.7
Misc 2.7
Total 100.9

Both flaps ready to have carbon rods and glass wraps on the ribs.  The left aileron needs two bolts holes for its control horn attachment.  Both ailerons then need carbon rods and glass wraps on the ribs.  The aileron turning pullies (to get from wing to torque tube) are built, but need to be installed in the root area.  At that point, I'll definitely assemble everything, make the control lines (already ordered), and make airplane noises while finally wiggling the wing controls.  There is also a small tab to install on the flap that attaches it to the tail rigging lines.

Other to-dos include working on the ribs.  I have enough completed ribs for one wing half.  For the other half, all but one rib are pre-shaped, but need the leading and trailing crimps and right-angle brackets attached.  That'll finish off the ribs.  It'll be glorious to have the ribs done.  I'm going to leave them uninstalled until after the load test.

There are some minor items that need clean-up.  For example, I have two compression struts that were mis-drilled with twist long ago, which need to be replaced.  I have material for them already, just need to do it.  I also bought material to replace the cabane aft struts; I must have seen something that I wanted to rework.

I know there will be several more areas to rework after I have over an A&P friend to have him provide some feedback.  He has already mentioned skepticism about using "rope" for control lines.

At some point in the near future will be to build a rig for the load test, and a wing rack for holding the covered wings, oh and covering the whole airplane in general.

Maybe I'm not as close as I joke :-)  It's getting there.

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