24/08/2008 - Finished remaining drilling and dimpling of right aileron

As per the pictures on the 22nd, the right aileron needed the same treatment.  So all the remaining parts for the ailerons have been sent for priming

24/08/2008 - Riveted on the leading edge of the left wing

I was nervous about this stage but the time had come.  Some builders struggle with solid rivets others use blind rivets.  The plans call for solid (though Vans underwrite the blind ones anyway).  I decided on a compromise that the outside rib and innermost rib would at least be solid and the rest could be blind.

Shock of all shocks, after making sure protective tape, the riveting tool was appropriately ground down and then protected with a plastic soc and that ground to the same shape the first rib, the innermost one went very well indeed.

So the decision was to do solid rivets all the way along.  The one right in the middle took three of us.  One on the hammer, one on the bucking bar, one with a torch and was the eyes of the man on the bucking bar from the other end as he could not see if he was upright on the end of the rivet or not.

We had one problem with one rib which was the 2nd one in from the outboard end and the rivets kept toppling over and making a mess.  After discussion Ian said the rivets are too long (we were using the ones the plans stated) but he was right, when we dropped a size everything was working as well as the others.  The result is 5 very good ribs with solid rivets and one rib ok with solid rivets.  Given some of the picture I have seen I am really pleased with the results.

There was still enough time in the day to rivet all the skin to spar rivets with the squeezer and put one skin back on to test the result.  Chuffed, a great day in the shop.