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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