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Jun 8, 2010 - Construction activities have been limited for several months waiting for the wing and center section upgrade modifications.  The shipping crate containing NEW main spars and center section arrived today - 10-1/2 feet long, 217 lbs. Spars wrapped in white foam,  Box at left contains parts required for the full upgrade.

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Jun 8, 2010 - Upgrade parts laid out and inventoried.

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Jun 8, 2010 - Long main wing spars and the shorter center section.

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Jun 12, 2010 - Root section of main wing spars with new additional 0.125" thick reinforcing plate.  Also, shown are two of the new stronger upright angles.

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Jun 12, 2010 - This shows the new stronger top spar cap.

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Jun 13, 2010 - This is the original rear spar root section, with doubler plate and short piece of angle at bottom.

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Jun 13, 2010 - The short piece of angle is removed, and additional doubler is added and a full length angle strip is added to the top.

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Jun 13, 2010 - Reinforcement plate added to strenghten area around aileron control rod hole.  Original hole was 1-1/2".  I reduced new hole to 1-3/8".

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Jun 13, 2010 - Reinforcing plates on both rear spars.

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Jun 16, 2010 - New bellcrank support bracket is on left, old braket on the right. New bracket is larger and .040 material in lieu of original .025 material.

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Jun 16, 2010 - Necessary to trim top of rear ribs to provide clearance for heavier main spar cap extrusion.  Trimmed rib clamped in place to new top cap extrusion.

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Jun 16, 2010 - All rear ribs clamped up to main spar prior to drilling.

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Jun 16, 2010 - Wing tip added to outboard end of main spar.

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Jun 17, 2010 - Drilled rear ribs onto main and rear spars.

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Jun 17, 2010 - Trimming and fitting nose ribs 1, 2 & 3.  These ribs had to be trimmed back to allow for added thickness of new spar reinforcing plates.

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Jun 17, 2010 - Used laser to make sure all ribs were aligned, and that nose ribs 1, 2, & 3 matched.

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Jun 18, 2010 - Drilled nose ribs 1, 2, & 3 to main spar.

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Jun 18, 2010 - Drilling of all nose ribs required use of Tight-Fit right angle drill due to limited room to drill through side of ribs next to spar.

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Jun 18, 2010 - This shows why right angle drill was required.  The hole at the bottom right is for the fuel tank connection.

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Jun 23, 2010 - Top skin pilot drilled and clecoed.

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Jun 23, 2010 -  Clay Heathco helping swap out silver clecos for black ones as I re-drill to A5 size.

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Jun 29, 2010 - Wing flipped over, and bottom skin added.

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Jun 25, 2010 - Nose skin drilled and clecoed to bottom of left wing.

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Jun 25, 2010 - Required to add rib rivet line for nose rib #4,  Factory leaves this open since this is omitted if long range fuel tanks are used.

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Jun 25, 2010 - Notice arrow pointing to "top".  Next step is to flip wing over in order to wrap nose skin over front.

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Jun 29, 2010 - Left wing filpped back over, with top side up.  Nose skin clecoed to bottom from previous operation.

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Jun 29, 2010 - nose skin rolled over and tucked under top skin.  Used 12' 1"x2" board and four ratchet straps to snug up nose skin.

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Jun 29, 2010 - View of #1 nose rib (root).

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Jun 29, 2010 - Cut a notch in an 8 foot 1x2 to make a push/pull stick to adjust inner ribs for drilling.

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Jun 29, 2010 - Nose skin drilled and clecoed.  Left wing main structure complete.  Next add internal reinforcing, aileron mass balance, fuel tank, landing lights, etc.

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