17/05/2008 - Hanging the right wing and adding the skins

First job of the day was to finish off riveting the rear spar.  I had to drill out 3 rivets that went wrong, a little drama trying to drill out from the rib side because of getting a centre on the rivet, but eventually without damage it came out.  Breath a sigh of relief (and not for the first time of the day neither)

Once the rear spar was on (and holes left in the correct places !) the wing skeleton could be hung, levelled and made straight as per the instructions.  Now the second drama came when adding the first skin and the holes along the rear spar did not match up.....panic sets in... I have built it wrong! 

After about 10 minutes of arm waving it dawns on us that the rear spar is shifted by half an inch to far to the right;  unclamp, correct, measure, put skins back on...eureka.  Now I have to say (and I may be shot here) its easier to get the wing straight with the help of the skins than it is by just using the skeleton.  Measured again with all 4 skins on and perfect, level, straight, no twist.

Its also worth noting that i switched from the bottle jack to a screw jack; easier to get fine precision and wont sink if the bottle jack is less than air tight.  The plans also call for drawing some lines on the skin (second photo below) to mark the centre point of the tie down hole that will be in the leading edge skin.  Also the outboard skin fits over the inboard skin where they join in the middle.



Now in my rigour to get the wing straight and clecoing on the skins I had not done the wing doubler for people to step on the wing.

This is created from a long piece of aluminium and match drilled to the skin.  It sits underneath the outside inner skin next to the cabin.  The second picture shows the doubler underneath the skin between that and the rib when it had been fitted.