Wings

Roll Trim System

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This weekend I spent a few hours working on the roll trim system. I’m using the Ray Allen trim system from Vans, so everything is nicely packaged together into its own subsystem.

Modified trim bushing block

I started out by modifying the plastic block that holds the pivot arm. This needed two holes drilled through it foe the AN3 bolts that hold it to the aluminum plate. I also botched the larger counter bored hole to allow access to the cotter pin that holds the pivot arm in place.

Mounting plate drilled

I then trimmed and match drilled the mounting plate to the seat pan holes. This allowed for a perfect fit. Once I drilled the two holes on the left, I temporarily installed it to drill the two holes on the right to the floor ribs.

Original hole and new hole in ribs

Here you can see the original hole where the nut plate was. I removed the nut plate and then used the center hole to mount the plate in order to drill the bottom hole. This was done on both sides of the center channel.

Cutting the pivot arm to the right length

I then cut the pivot arm tube to the right length so it can sit in the block and then be mounted to the metal plate. I cut off about an inch of tube. Once I did that I drilled a 1/16th hole for the cotter pin.

Mounting plate completed

After drilling the block to the mounting plate, I dimpled, and mounted the nut plates to the mounting plate. I will complete this plate by priming it before final installation.

Pivot arm installed into block

I then installed the pivot arm into the plastic block, and then installed the washer and cotter pin to hold it all together.

Test fitting the assembly

I then test fit the assembly by installing the bottom two screws. The top two are where the floor is held on to the ribs. The pivot arm needed to be adjusted to not rub on the control rod.

In the bottom left is the servo block. I need to drill that to the floor rib for final installation as well.

The final thing to do next time is to finishing the assembly with the control stick springs and cleaning up the assembly with some final adjustments.

Roll Trim System

Closed out the wings!

George3 Comments

Today I hit a huge milestone! With the help of my fiancée Britney and my friend Mina, we were able to close out the final skin on the wings.

With all that’s going on, I was worried that I wouldn’t make much progress on the project, which has turned out to be somewhat true. But when I do get to a new milestone, it feels amazing.

Current state of the hangar

After we wrapped up the final rivets, Mina helped me put the wings back in the cradle. I couldn’t help but take a wide angle pic of the whole hangar. There is a lot more space now that the wing isn’t on the saw horses.

Checking the spar receptacle

There’s still lots to do on the project, but getting to this point has been a great adventure!

Closed out the wings!

Finished closing out first wing

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This weekend my buddy Norio and I spent about three hours closing out the final wing skin. It was a lot of shuffling and checking rivets after bucking them.

Final wing skin partially riveted

Once we got the hang of the pattern, it went quicker. Still required maneuvering my arm through tight spaces and rib lightening holes.

Interior of the wing

Here you can see the shop heads in the rib after riveting. The spar (gold on the left) has the rivets in place but not set yet.

Me checking out the rivets after finishing

The shiny panel here is the skin we completed. I was looking over the rivets to make sure there wasn’t anything obviously out of place or missing. I only have the flap hinge left to rivet, which can be done solo using the squeezer.

Next I will prep the final skin for the left wing, and prepare it by marking the sequence for riveting. It will save a bunch of time trying to remember which set of rivets to go next.

Finished closing out first wing

Wing skins

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Tonight my buddy Norio and I spent a couple hours prepping and riveting the final lower wing skin.

Here I was checking the alignment of the ribs

After testing the fit, we bag prepping to river the inboard rivets. We started with the lower corner of the rear spar and worked our way across towards the wingtip.

Inboard corner rivet on the rear spar

After riveting the first rivet we checked the shop head with the rivet gauge to calibrate the rivet fun as well as my hand on the bucking bar. We made some adjustments and then we dialed it in.

Rear spar inboard section riveted

Once the rear spar was riveted, we worked our way up the inboard section towards the main spar.

Inboard rib rivets

Some rivets needed to be driven a touch more, but all of these were perfectly set.

We called it a night after finishing these rivets and now that we’re calibrated the rest of the wing should go much faster.

Wing skins

Modified Wing Rear Spars

George2 Comments

Today I finally got off my lazy butt and got back in the garage. It’s been more than a month since I’ve touched the project.

I started by making a giant list of all the tasks that I could think of in order to finish the project.

The goal being that I can estimate effort and duration of each task. Given everything I could think of and the effort needed, it looks like I have about 500hours left (give or take).

Once I finished this, I decided to something on the wings that was easy, to get back in the mood.

The quickbuild wings need their rear spare modified for the -7. The wings are identical for the -8, and this is why they are larger. I marked the rear spars where they needed to be trimmed.

I then used my dremel with cutoff wheel to cut the spare down to just before the line. I will hand file the rest when I am fitting the wings.

Modified Wing Rear Spars

Wing skins

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Today I had my friend Norio over to help me out a bit on the project. After a few hours of catching up and some good bbq we spent some time in the shop. No pictures tonight, but we got the final wing skins dimpled and nearly ready to install. Left to do is a bit more edge finishing and then riveting.

Wing skins

Back at it (almost)

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Yesterday I had the rare day where I could get away and get into the garage. After spending about 5 minutes looking at everything I realized I needed to spend the day cleaning the shop before attempting to do any work on the fuselage. 

Over the last 6 months or so, more and more junk started piling up, and it became more difficult even walk around. Now that the wings are done I decided to move everything out and do a full clean sweep. 


With the plane in the driveway I got out the vacuum and broom and swept and cleaned all the leaves and junk out of the garage. 

Also organized the benches and put everything away, I have a bad habit of leaving my tools and everything out on the tables, so I decided to clean those off as well. 


The end result, plane back in the shop with plenty of room to begin work. Plan is to store the wings in the other garage to have nearly the whole garage to work on the fuse. Just need to build a fuse stand and then I’m good to go.

I’ll be doing more updates moving forward, I’m going to be working a lot more often on the project. 

Back at it (almost)

Right Aileron Brackets and Gap Faring

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Tonight I spent a couple hours working on the right wing. I started by removing the gap faring and brackets that were clecoed on the wing. I surface prepped and primed the gap faring, and match drilled and dimpled the holes as necessary. I also took this opportunity to install the aileron brackets with the service bulliten Vans posted a few months back. I already did this to the left wing. 
Here you can see the back and front of the aileron bracket, with the reinforcement plates on the front of the rear spar (img 1). Rivets had to be shot and bucked because my rivet squeezer doesn’t reach some of the rivets. 


I also installed the outside bracket which was relatively straightforward. Again here’s the outside and inside of the rivets holding the bracket on. 
Finally I riveted the gap faring in place. 


Here you can see it clecoed in position. I then installed rivets and was able to reach all of them with the squeezer.


Here’s all the button head rivets holding the faring to the rear spar. 


Here’s the inside of the spar. Again rivets were checked and squeezed for consistency when setting them, which is the best thing about the squeezer. 


Also thought I’d share a general update and include a short walkthrough of the shop. 

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Right Aileron Brackets and Gap Faring

Tanks are Leak Free!

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I finished sealing the tanks about a week ago, and the last two days I spent leak testing them. I made a water manometer and pressurized the tank to about 20″ of water. Over the course of 4 hours the tank pressure fluctuated a little, as the temperature rose in the garage the pressure went up slightly. I didn’t bother doing the math to calculate the pressure rise, but it’s safe to say if there was a leak it wouldn’t go up. Just to be safe I also sprayed the whole tank with soapy water to see if bubbles formed. This actually cooled the tank down a bit as the cold water was sprayed on, and the pressure dropped down. 

This is the setup I did for both tanks. And both are rock solid. A big milestone under my belt and I’m glad it’s over! I performed a similar test for the other tank and let it sit overnight. Again no drop in pressure and no bubbles formed at any point on the tank. 

I then spent some time installing the tanks onto the wings, once they are installed there’s only a couple more things to do to mark the wings done. 

  1. Install right aileron and brackets. 
  2. Install wiring conduit in right wing
  3. Debur and install bottom skins
  4. Wing tips

3 and 4 will be pushed off until the very end of the build. There’s no rush in installing the bottom skins as it’s better to have access than to not. 1 and 2 should be a few hours work and then I’m done! Wings will be put into storage and then fuselage time. 

Tanks are Leak Free!

Fuel tank access plates

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Today I spent about an hour prepping and sealing the fuel tank access plates. This was very messy and I didn’t get any pictures during the process. The fuel tank pick up lines and bulkhead fittings were glued and torqued. Also the anti rotation brackets were riveted and then sealed with tank sealant. Once those cute in a couple days I’ll be able to fully seal up the tanks. 

I also spent some time on the remaining wing, I prepped the flap hinge loops by removing 3 loops from near the center of the flap. This will allow for easy installation of the flaps during final assembly. 

Fuel tank access plates