While waiting for a few things to happen with the leading edges (proseal to dry on a couple small tank leaks), I started on the aileron and flap gap fairings. Both sides were match drilled, deburred, dimpled and primed before clecoing back on for riveting.

Riveting these on wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was able to squeeze all but 10 or so rivets which had to be bucked. It just took longer than I expected.

More mounting of the leading edges. Both leading edges are now half mounted. Aft edges of the leading edge ribs are attached and the bottom aft edge is also riveted.

All that’s left for these is to wait for a hand to rivet the top side aft edge. Too much of a reach to do it single handed.

I’ve added a new image gallery (links in the right sidebar). You can even have pictures printed by ShutterFly (little printer link at bottom right when viewing image) if you so desire.

I’ve also updated all the embedded photo links inside the individual blog entries to link to the photo in the gallery instead of that anoying popup window I had. Those of you that are on the RSS feed, sorry if this caused a bunch of refreshed links.

New site layout. Moved to my new host plus switched to new blog software.

Because of the software switch, those of you that are reading the RSS feed might want to switch to the new feed url which you can find in the Syndicate section at the bottom of the sidebar. I’ve mapped the old feed url to the new one for the time being, but can’t guarantee that it will be around forever. Just switch to the new one and be safe.

I still have some cleanup left to do after the import from the old software, but things should be pretty close to normal.

Ok, finally time to start putting these things together. Here I’m just test fitting the leading edge on the left wing. Starting to actually look like a wing now.

Installed the AOA ports this weekend. Not much to this. Just wanted to get them on before I attached the leading edge so I would have better access from the aft.

Spent a little time getting the HID landing light mount prepared. First step was to cut holes in the leading edges. This was a little scary at first. Took me a while to build up the nerve to plunge the Dremel cut-off wheel through my nice leading endges. Turned out fine though. Got it roughed out with the Dremel and then used a fine file to finish it off.

Here’s a shot of the mounting brackets. The HID ballasts will get mounted in the square cutout section. For reference to others, these ended up being about 15.5 inches just like the plans said. Also, the angle extensions were cut at 7 inches.

Here’s a shot of them mounted in the leading edge. I wanted to do these before I mounted the leading edges onto the spars. You can see why here. I had plenty of access from the back.

Looking in from the front. I think I’m going to wait till later to fit and trim the plexi lens. Just feel like moving on to something else. We’ll see.

Thanks to Andrew for coming over and lending a hand. We were able to finish up riveting on the top skins.

Total for Top Skins: 36 hours Total for Wings So Far: 188.5 hours

Finally. After 5.5 hours deburring and dimpling and about an hour of priming, the top skins are ready to be riveted on. Time to work on the wings has been sparse the last few months, but making progress again.

Mounted a temporary ledge between my two tables to hold the c-frame for dimpling. Makes it a lot easier. The male die is aligned with the bench tops. Made it easier to dimple the long top skins with one pair of hands.

Received my recently ordered Advanced Flight Systems Angle Of Attack Sport in the mail today. Wow, this is a pretty complete kit. Comes with a complete manual and DVD. Very nice.

I wanted to get it ordered so I could get it mounted in the leading edge before I attached the leading edges to the spars. Want to do the same with the Duckworks Landing Light kit also.