Happy New Year! I wrapped up 2023 and kicked off 2024 by completing the wingtip installation. I am using the Aveo Engineering ZipTip Premier wingtips that have integrated lights. These include Landing, Taxi, Nav and Strobe lights with a rear position/strobe light as well. They recently announced a completely new and upgraded version – Vegas. Check them out, I may upgrade in the future.

I started the installation by trimming the inboard edges of the wingtips to 5/8″ width. This is so that they sit flush with the wing skins. I also trimmed back the trailing edge to provide 1/4″ gap to the aileron.

I then used my ratchet strap to hold the wingtip in the right position and snug up against the leading edge.

With the strap holding the wingtip to the wing, I drilled #40 and clecoed all the holes top and bottom. Then I removed the strap. I also used this opportunity to verify the lighting was working as expected. I drilled the left wingtip, then the right followed the same process.

I removed every other Cleco and drilled to #27 for the -6 screws I’ll be using. Once all the holes were drilled I removed the wingtips and began the tedious process of drilling and installing the nutplates.

I made a small nutplate jig using a -6 screw, and use that to drill all the rivet holes for the nut plates.

after drilling everything I countersunk all the rivet holes and the screw holes. The screw holes need to be counter sunk big enough to accept the dimple from the wing skin. After that, I riveted all the nutplates on to the wingtip. I repeated this process with the right wingtip.

Once everything was riveted, I installed the wingtips to the plane and ran the harness through to the lighting module. I powered up the panel and did a test of the lights. It was night time so I used this opportunity to test out the performance of the lights at night. They are very bright. I may need to make some minor adjustments to the taxi light angle somehow, but they are sufficient for now.

The whole process took me approximately 8 hours for all the trimming, fitting, drilling and riveting. Nothing was difficult, just tedious. I wanted to start the fiberglass work with the wingtips for this reason. Now I can proceed to rest of the fiberglass work!