We decided to use the same method as the time we attached the wing for setting the angle of incidence. So we use the small saw horses with MDF plates and old seat cushions. This time the Wings are painted, so we need to be extra careful.

For the left wing we measure the distance to the first saw horse. We need enough room for the Pitot/AoA tube.

This time it is easier to insert the wing spar into the main bulk head, Probably because we are ‘experienced’. Also we need to take care of the bottom skin. The bottom skin of the fuselage slides over the skin of the wings.

Once the main wing spar has been inserted into the main bulk head, the aft spar needs to slide into the seat bulk head. There is not much leverage to get the aft spar in the bulk head. By gently wiggling the Wing we can slide it in.

With both spars installed and the skins correctly weaved, we can attach the forward wing bracket. It connects the fuel tank bracket to the fuselage. Now we need to connect the Fuel line, the return line, the vent line and the fuel level sender wire.

The last step (and by far the the hardest) is inserting all the 10 bolts on the inside that clamp the wing spar to the main bulk head. The bolts fit is really tight inside spars and it takes some time to get them all in.

Ok, next up the right wing, this is easier, because of even more ‘experience’. Also there are less connections and there is no Pitot tube. In order to make it easier to insert the wings, we have the crates under the tailwheel to set the plane (almost) level.

The Wing is not that heavy, picking it from the cradle, however there is very little space, so it’s hard to insert the wing, while holding it at the leading edge.

I made the holes in the wing ribs and fuselage skin for the electric wiring with a very tight fit. It makes it really hard push through the skins. It prevents vibrations during flight, but it’s horrible when the wing is just hanging there.

Now again inserting all the bolts, to secure the wing (spar) to the main bulkhead.

Now I can screw the nuts on and torque the nuts.

When the Wings are attached, we can lower the tailwheel to the ground.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-09-19)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-09-22)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-09-26)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-09-29)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-10-03)

Video

I briefly thought I could finish these tasks by tugging the Fuselage outside, attaching the Wings an do all the work. But when I looked at the list, there is no way I could finish that in one day. Turns out it took me five days.

The Van’s manual states that you could do it “per Wing”, if your workshop is small. After careful consideration I decided, that it is probably better to go that route than postponing all the “little tasks”.

So we set some saw-horses that almost match the height of the RV wings (once leveled) and asked help of the family to diligently lay the Wing on the saw-horses. My faces shows I realize if we drop it, I’m going to cry like a little girl.

One of those tasks is the Fuel line sticking out of the Fuselage, preventing us from attaching the Wing. We need to measure how far the Wing goes in and consequently how much needs to be cut from the Fuel line. Again, every task requires focus, because failure will result in serious setbacks.

The Wing doesn’t slide in like that. It requires some force as the main bulkhead really clamps the main spar. With the Fuel line cut to the right size, we can now attache the wing all the way into the main bulkhead.

Besides the main bulkhead, the rear spar also needs to fit between to bars in the seat bulkhead and the forward tank attach angle needs to align and the bottom skins need to slip over the Wing skins. The last few inches is a delicate task.

another task is the cover strip that covers the gap between the wing and the Fuselage. It requires fitting, trimming, match drilling and dimpling. Again, this can only be done after attaching the Wing.

Tip of the day, wear glasses when drilling above your head. It sounds obvious, but I always forget an get reminded when pieces of Aluminum shoot into my eyes.

One major task is attaching the Flap push rod. The hole in the Fuselage needs to be enlarged and elongated to track the Flap push rod. Can only be done with the wing attached and this took the rest of the evening and part of the next day.

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-10-21)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-10-25)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-10-28)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/1  (2020-10-31)

Video

Another option is to attach them permanently to the wings with rivets, either blind or solid rivets. I decided to go for the latter option.

Using solid rivets is a challenge, as the rivets at the trailing edge are hard to reach. I bought an inexpensive endoscope and connected it to a small laptop. This provides me with the ‘sight’ I need to determine if the rivets are set correctly.

Now I can reach in with the bucking bar and check the laptop to see whether I’m bucking at the right place and afterwards the quality of the work. Without the endoscope it’s really hard to check inside.

The aft most rivets can be reached by lifting the Aileron. Now that the bottom side of the right Wing is done we turn the Wing top side up on the workbench.

The rivets on the top side are even harder to reach. I duck-taped a hammer as a counter-weight to a stick and taped the bucking bar to the front.

Again by checking the endoscope image on the laptop we can determine the correct position.

With the right Wing finished, we now need to swap Wings. The workshop is too small to handle the swap, so I rolled the workbench out and positioned the cradle to insert the finished Wing.

Now we can lift the left Wing out of the cradle and place it on the workbench. Last stop is moving the cradle out of the way.

The left Wing is a little trickier, because the Pitot tube is in the way. Working on the bottom that is not a problem yet.

To determine the alignment of the Wing Tip, we use a string, that ‘cuts’ through the tooling holes, visualizing the chord. With that, we can position the Aileron in a exact level position.

With the Aileron set, we align the Wing Tip to match the Aileron. The aft most part of the Wing Tip has a small rib inside, because there is no Wing there to keep the Tip in shape.

Drilling the top would be easier the other way around, but with the Pitot tube turning the Wing is not that easy.

To prevent the glass fiber Wing Tip from cracking when riveted, we attach a small Aluminum strip on the inside.

Since the Wing Tip is very flexible, it is easy compressible. To prevent ‘floppy’ Wing Tips, I prepared a foam rib covered with fiberglass and epoxy resin to create a strong structure. Later I glued the rib with resin inside the Wing Tip.

Because I use Flyleds, the lighting panels can almost be completely removed. Now there is enough room to reach inside the Wing Tip. Also for maintenance purposes later.

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 29/0  (2020-08-08)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-08-09)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-08-10)

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets: 29/0  (2020-08-15)

Video

There are about 4 different lengths of flush rivets used, depending on the number and thickness of the Aluminum sheets. So we decided to rivet per length and skip those (by inserting cleco’s) in the holes that require longer rivets.

After about two hours we got the top skin attached to the main spar and ribs. This makes the wing quite rigid. We take it from the wing stand and lay it on the table for attaching the aileron hinges and fairing and flap brace.

The outboard aileron hinge is pretty straight forward.

On the inboard aileron hinge, there is the Service Bulletin to place doublers on the inside of the rear spar. Luckily our bottom skin is still off. I can imagine the frustration of receiving the Service Bulletin after you attached also the bottom skin.

No we can finish the bottom row of the skin with the squeezer, OH NO!! With the right wing we did this routine for the first time and I checked every step twice. Now I thought I could do it fast. But you cannot reach the rear spar once the aileron fairing is attached.

I hesitated to drill out all the rivets of the aileron fairing, but that are so many of them, I would probably screw that up and make it worse (hey after almost half a century even I start to recognize minor attitude issues). The space between the fairing and the top skin is too small for the yoke of he squeezer. Even the 4″ flat mouth does NOT fit, however my bucking bar does fit between these two pieces of Aluminum.

There goes efficiency of preserving work for the squeezer. Oh well, at least I can fix it without a huge amount of extra work and frustration or fubarring my wing.
The flap brace is NOT attached to the top skin, so the problem only exists at the outboard side of the aileron.

I’ve just received the “crating date” of the Fuselage kit I ordered. Van’s doesn’t report a shipping date, but a crating date (shipping is probably a few days later). My fuselage will be crated February 18th 2019. So with shipping and handling, it will probably take until mid March before I receive it. I’m not sure if I have enough work, since I only need to do the Aileron and Flaps and the bottom skin.
Maybe I can do the composite work on the Empennage and Wings, which I deferred. However specifically for the Wings the manual states that you should do the wing tips later after finishing the Fuselage, Engine and Finish kit, because they can be damaged easily.
We’ll see, but I’m not going to sit idle in my workshop twiddling my thumbs.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 559/1

Video

I love the smell of Aluminum in the morning! I placed the left wing in the stand, attached the tank and clecoed the top skin to it, in order to rivet it this weekend.

After five hours of doing little things here and there and cleaning up, the right wing could be placed in the wing cradle. The flap brace is the one with the lighting holes and the aileron fairing in the sloped strip between the aileron brackets.

Here’s the outboard aileron bracket, I used a flush rivet in the bottom hole, so the aileron won’t touch the bracket attachment. The aileron fairing is attached to the rear spar and the top skin.

In the center of the wing is the other aileron bracket. Again on the aileron side I used a flush rivet.

According to SERVICE BULLETIN 16-03-28, there can be Cracking of wing aft spar web at the inboard aileron hinge bracket attach rivet. Van’s Aircraft send me some doubler plates enclosed with the wing kit.

I attached the aileron bracket together with the new doubler plates. I did modify the plates by trimming the bottom side, to be able to buck the rivets when riveting the bottom skin.

The flap brace is thicker than the aileron fairing. It’s also attached to the rear spar, but will be clecoed together with the flap hinges to the bottom skin. So the ailerons are attached to the wings with brackets with bearings, while the flaps are attached to the brace with a piano hinge.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 114/1

First step is mixing the tank sealant, we are getting quite experienced in it and combined with our kit dispenser “trick” it’s really easy.
Before starting on the right tank leaks, I prepare the Left Tank Baffle by sealing the fuel sender. The sender is in the second bay, because the first bay is occupied with the Flop Tube.

We added a thick line of tank sealant ad the outboard rib and we removed the gasket completely and replaced it with tank sealant. It will make it harder to reopen the flange, but if you need that, you are already in deep shit.

This time we didn’t make enough tank sealant, so half-way we had to mix a second batch.

While my dad removes the cleco’s and inserts the rivets, I use the squeezer to set the rivets. The tank attach angles on top of the baffle are pop riveted, since it’s impossible to reach them.

Cleaning up the tools with acetone, works like a charm.

Now I have to wait until the tank sealant in dry and then we can re-test the right tank with the water test. Also we need to test the left tank with the “air” test. I’m a bit tensed as I sincerely hope the tenk is leak-free. If not we need to fix it and that is probably not easy.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 188/0 (2018-10-28)

Video

Now we can use the kit dispenser to put tank sealant on the flanges of the ribs. I decided to deviate from the plans, as I didn’t like to “squeeze” the ribs in the skin while it was sitting in the cradle. In my mind the dimples would smear the tank sealant from its place increasing the chances of leakage.

So I decided to add tank sealant on both sides of the rib (bottom and top) and instead of “squeezing” it in, just cleco it to the bottom of the skin.
You can see this is the last inner rib, the others are already clecoed in. Meanwhile the top is still free.

After clecoing all ribs, we “squeezed” the tank into the cradle, bending the skin instead of “squeezing” the rib. It went really well and I will use the same technique on the Right Wing Tank. After all the ribs are in and the tank is in the cradle we start riveting.

In the nose part of the Tank it’s not that easy to set the rivets. Here working with two persons is not a luxury.
The inner and outer most ribs still need to be done with “squeezing” the rib, because of the excess of tank sealant involved I didn’t worry.

For those two ribs we can use the pneumatic squeezer (top word in this post).

I could have prepared the inboard rib better, now we needed to seal and rivet the attach angle, so it took us 6 hours of working on the tank.

Because of the bulkheads, I used the other yoke.

Here’s the result. I tested the tank and it leaked on the gasket of the big hole. Without thinking too long, I threw out the gasket and used tank sealant to seal that part.
Maybe I should have been more patient and wait if the gasket would need some time emerged in water to get set.

My biggest frustration of this tank is that the hole didn’t have to be there at all. If you use a flop tube (as I do in the left wind) that hole is not necessary. So it took me 30 minutes to create the hole and than another hour to seal it tight again.

Well you could argue that if something goes wrong with the bulkheads later you still have access. However that would be awkward to work through that hole as it isn’t that big at all.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 259/1 (2018-09-26)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 1/0 (2018-09-30)

Video

The bolts are on the skin and the Baffle at the back of the tank is bolted to the main spar with Tank Attach Angles. These are Z-shaped pieces of Aluminum.

These Tank Attach Angles need to be drilled and six of the seven must have platenuts attached to it. The seventh has no platenuts, but the main spar does. You only drill the center hole and use the main spar as a guide to drill the other holes. This is done on the aft (rear side) of the main spar.

Once the holes are drilled I attach them to the forward side of the main spar to match-drill the center hole in the spar.

Now we can drill the rivet holes for the platenuts in the Tank Attach Angles.

The rivets must be flush, because this side needs to be placed against the main spar. We machine counter-sink to make the rivets flush.

With the micro-stop it’s very easy to machine counter-sink the angles. You adjust the micro-stop once (for a specific size) and that’s it. Only the edges must be done with care, since one side of the micro-stop is not supported.

I was having a blast and after six rivets realized, I didn’t prime these angles yet.

I considered leaving it is as, but my OCD determined that is NOT acceptable, hence I drilled out the six rivets and will reset them later after priming.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0 (2018-07-08)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 6/6 (2018-07-15)

Video

Using Cleco’s every 3rd hole to fastening the ribs to the skin. Notice the connecting strip between the leading edge and the Tanks and the “small rib” which is actually the bracket for the stall warner. Moreover I decided to NOT build the stall warner, but add an Angle of Attack sensor and indicator in the plane, which is much more precise than the mechanical stall warner.

The fit of the Left Leading Edge looked a little better than the Right one. The distance between the Right Leading Edge and the main Wing Skins was about half a millimeter. On the Left it’s an exact match.

Clecoing the ribs to the main spar. I’m wondering how I can rivet these, but let’s defer that doubt to the assembling section.

The connection strip needs an exact distance between the Leading Edge and the Tanks. Hence a caliper is used to insert the strip in there. Gently whacking the strip while holding the caliper to see if it’s correct.

Finishing the strip by drilling it with the skin holes as a guide. After that match-drilling all other holes in the skin.

Last step of the Leading Edge is widening (and positioning) the hole for the Tie-Down bolt. Notice the access plate for the stall warner. I’m going to check with Van’s if maybe the “bay” for the stall warner is suitable for the pitot tube. Of course I need to get the tube through the main spar so there’s that.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 0/0

Video

With the Leading Edge Skin in the Tank Cradle, the skin is bend just right to insert the ribs and Cleco them. Although sometime it’s hard to get the most forward (on the bottom) Cleco in there.

Fitting the Leading Edge on top of the main spar was a good match, however there is a small “gap” between the top skin and the leading edge skin. Probably half a milimeter. Not sure if it is better to use epoxy resin to fill this gap (I’ll think about that later).

The most inboard rib is not pre-drilled and needs to be fitted “manually”.

Also an additional strip of Aluminum needs to be constructed, to connect the Leading Edge skin with the Tank skin. The instruction that this part needs to be constructed is on detail F on the drawing, but not in the manual. I really think Van’s could improve the manual by adding these hints in the text. It’ll probably take a complete page on the whole plane, so no worries there.

Drilling time, starting from the constructed plate down and outward.

Easy task, next time the Left Leading Edge and then prepare for the Tanks. I’ve read (sealant) horror stories on this, so I’m really eager to see if those are true.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 0/0

Video