The Wing

Start - 7/29/99, Finish - 10/8/99

The wings arrive with all but one of the bottom skins, control surfaces and tips attached. Overall workmanship was very good. The control surface workmanship was excellent.
This was my starting point:
1) Install bell cranks, build control rods.
2) Attach aileron hinge brackets to wings and to ailerons.
3) Drill the remaining skins to the wings
4) Fit and Install flap brace and flap hinge.
5) Fit and Install aileron gap fairing
6) Landing light installation (Duckworks kit)
7) Take care of wiring, antenna and pitot provisions. (Used Warren Gretz's heated pitot mount)
8) Attach skins
9) Attach wing tips

The friendly folks at Van's loading up one of the wings

Fitting the flap brace required the inboard section of the brace be bent to be slightly concave to fit the pre drilled holes in the raised inboard area of the rear spar. This kept the brace from pushing out the skin in that area.
After an initial fit check I pre drilled the skin to the flap brace using 1/4" edge distance. Then, a cleco side grip at each end of the flap hinge held the flap and hinge in position for its final drilling to the now pre drilled skin and brace.
The trick I used was spacing about five -3 flush rivets along the length of skin and brace to hold the skin and flap brace in alignment. These five rivets were only temporary and were not bucked. They were placed so the shop head extended out of the top of the skin, thus the flap hinge could be nearly flush against the brace for backdrilling.
I also left the flap attached to the hinge during the drilling to keep the hinge straight and hopefully make the pin easier to insert and remove. Results seem good.
Attaching the aileron bay fairing required it be notched to fit around the rivet heads and raised areas in the rear spar.

Stuffing a couple of rags in the the aileron bay held the aileron in position nicely to allow the flap position to be matched to it and drilled.

To cut the landing light hole I used the following steps:
1) Drill four 1/2" holes with the unibit about one half inch inside each corner.
2) Use the cutoff wheel on the die grinder to cut between the holes.
3) Use the snips along the straight edges and the carbide burr in the die grinder in the corners to remove the material to within 1/8" of the lines.
4) File away the last 1/8" of material and shape the corners.

Cutting the landing light hole was more scary than difficult.
The tools pictured are what I used. (unibit and cut-off wheel not shown)

The final skins were riveted starting from the inboard working outward
Bucking worked best when the bucker was kneeling in between the wing and the skin.
Wing Skin clecoed in place starting from the inboard end

The tip was attached later during the wing to fuselage mounting. It seemed to easier to work around it at this point. I stuffed some chunks of styrofoam in the tip to help it conform to the skin shape. Some trimming of the tip was required for the tip to fit in the aileron area and near the leading edge of the wing.
Tip attached!

The wings arrive with all but one of the bottom skins, control surfaces and tips attached. Overall workmanship was very good. The control surface workmanship was excellent. This was my starting point: 1) Install bell cranks, build control rods. 2) Attach aileron hinge brackets to wings and to ailerons. 3) Drill the remaining skins to the wings 4) Fit and Install flap brace and flap hinge. 5) Fit and Install aileron gap fairing 6) Landing light installation (Duckworks kit) 7) Take care of wiring, antenna and pitot provisions. (Used Warren Gretz's heated pitot mount) 8) Attach skins 9) Attach wing tips	The friendly folks at Van's loading up one of the wings
Fitting the flap brace required the inboard section of the brace be bent to be slightly concave to fit the pre drilled holes in the raised inboard area of the rear spar. This kept the brace from pushing out the skin in that area. After an initial fit check I pre drilled the skin to the flap brace using 1/4" edge distance. Then, a cleco side grip at each end of the flap hinge held the flap and hinge in position for its final drilling to the now pre drilled skin and brace. The trick I used was spacing about five -3 flush rivets along the length of skin and brace to hold the skin and flap brace in alignment. These five rivets were only temporary and were not bucked. They were placed so the shop head extended out of the top of the skin, thus the flap hinge could be nearly flush against the brace for backdrilling. I also left the flap attached to the hinge during the drilling to keep the hinge straight and hopefully make the pin easier to insert and remove. Results seem good. Attaching the aileron bay fairing required it be notched to fit around the rivet heads and raised areas in the rear spar.	Stuffing a couple of rags in the the aileron bay held the aileron in position nicely to allow the flap position to be matched to it and drilled.
To cut the landing light hole I used the following steps: 1) Drill four 1/2" holes with the unibit about one half inch inside each corner. 2) Use the cutoff wheel on the die grinder to cut between the holes. 3) Use the snips along the straight edges and the carbide burr in the die grinder in the corners to remove the material to within 1/8" of the lines. 4) File away the last 1/8" of material and shape the corners.	Cutting the landing light hole was more scary than difficult. The tools pictured are what I used. (unibit and cut-off wheel not shown)
The final skins were riveted starting from the inboard working outward Bucking worked best when the bucker was kneeling in between the wing and the skin.	Wing Skin clecoed in place starting from the inboard end
The tip was attached later during the wing to fuselage mounting. It seemed to easier to work around it at this point. I stuffed some chunks of styrofoam in the tip to help it conform to the skin shape. Some trimming of the tip was required for the tip to fit in the aileron area and near the leading edge of the wing.	Tip attached!