April 29, 2016 – What a day this was! Myself and a helpful crew got the wing drilling done.
This had to be the warmest day of Spring so far this year, and I was feeling it by the time we were done.
I moved the fuselage and the wing cradle out into the driveway. We removed the flaps to help give access to the aft spar for drilling. We then slid the wings into position. It kinda looked sad with the wings there but without the wing bolts installed.
We ground the threads off four hardware store bolts, and put them into place.
Looks much better with some dihedral…
We did have to trim the ends of the aft spars, and the forward strap of the center section “forks” to get the wings straight.
We leveled the fuselage laterally and longitudinally, then hung four plumb bobs on the leading edges, then snapped a chalk line on the driveway. We lined up the inboard plumb bobs on the chalk line, then started working on getting the outboard ends perpendicular. Both wings had a very slight forward sweep.
We measured from the outboard aft corner of each wing back to the upper corner of the side skin at the aft-most bulkhead. Got 173 5/8″ on each side.
We then used a level and a 3″ block to measure level on each wing. Some minor adjustments were needed, but we got it dialed in.
I then got down into position at the aft spar to drill. I had made a nice wood block with a drill bushing in order to get a straight perpendicular hole. We realized that we couldn’t keep the spar clamped AND have the block in place. I decided to do it by hand. I started with a #30, then stepped up to #21, then used reamers to .191″, .250″, and finally .312″. And a lot of Boelube… The bolts slipped in great and were nice and straight. Those of you who know will think that the bolt is in backwards in the photo below. I just slipped the bolt in to test fit. I had to take everything back apart because I’m still in the garage.
Here’s the before and after at the aft spar:
And here’s the proud daddy:
Time: 24:00 (total man-hours)
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