Saturday 4.7 hrs.
Finish deburring tank ribs
flute tank ribs
Pull various tank parts.
Cut tank stiffeners.

Peel plastic on left tank skin

Deburr edges of left tank skin

deburr edges of tank baffles.
Fabricate Z bracket drilling guide.

Friday 1.1 hrs
Deburr tank ribs

2.2 hrs
Warmed up by stripping the left tank skin plastic, while making dinner.

After dinner, match drilled the left leading edge. Started with the spar/rib #30s. The ones closest to the top skin were almost impossible without the long flexible 6" #30 drill bit.
Then match drilled the skin/spar holes, and then the skin/rib holes.

Finished up by deburring the right 919 doubler strip, since that had already been started while doing the left one. Edge deburring is one of my least favorite parts, so I get as much out the way up front as I can. Still have to edge deburr all of the wing skins. Yuck.

Last, I just couldn't resist getting the tank ribs out and sorting them. Guess what. They need edge deburring!

3.0 hrs
Took a long time to get the leading edge fit to the spar properly. The first task was to finish triming the #3 rib to clear the spar rivets. This went pretty fast.
Started clecoing the ribs down and the bottom of the leading edge skin. This all went without a hitch. But the top skin was OK at the tip, but off by half a rivet, leaving a gap between the skins, at the inboard end.

Took it off and fussed with it a while. Had to reset the inboard rib, since it wasn't as completely set into the skin as the others. All that didn't really fix the problem. Ended up setting the assembly in place, and tilting the nose toward me while standing on the top side of the wing.

Then I was able to get clecos in to the skin-spar joint. This left the back with a gap, but this was easy to leverage into place. I think what gave is the spar flanges on the top side of the spar. They compressed a little with this operation, but I was able to cleco them flat.
Then finally able to cleco it all together (after getting mostly done with the clecos, and having to remove them all about 4 times).

Then it was on to the inboard rib and 919 doubler strip. Fabbed the strip from the supplied .032 material. Deburred it, marked the line for the rivet holes, and pre-bent using a dowel and the table saw fence rails. Had to trim about a 32nd off of the rib web to clear the spar doubler, otherwise there was no room to get the doubler and the rib into the skin.

Then the rib and doubler fit in, nice and snug, requiring a few taps from the rubber hammer to set properly.

1.8 hrs.
Next task was to cleco the leading edge skin to the ribs. After about 15 minutes, decided I couldn't do it with only two hands.
So started stripping plastic from the left tank skin while waiting for one of the girls to get home. That worked. Got about halfway done, when Katrin arrived.
Together we were able to get the job done.
Used the Smitty method once again. Clecoed the front two holes on the bottom of the skin across the width. Then holding it on the edge of the table so the clecoes would clear, used two hands to pull the skin taught over the rib and line the rib properly with the holes. I drew crosshairs on each pre-drilled rib tab to help in the alignment. When it was close, Katrin was able provide fine tuning directions (since I was standing to the aft and couldn't see) and then get the first two clecos in. Then on to the next rib. After two clecos on both top and bottom on all ribs, it went into the cradle. Then it was a piece o'cake.

After putting on all of the clecos it was time to fit the leading edge to the rib. This is when I discovered I had forgotten to trim the 3rd outboard rib to clear the spar rivets. Using a rib from the right, marked where the trimming should go. The unibit made quick work of it after some pilot holes. However, this is a pain with the rest of the leading edge assembly attached to that rib, since it's taken 3 iterations of fine tuning with a dremel and it's still a bit off on the top rivet. But it was time to stop for the night.

2.7 hrs
Now that the wing is really taking shape, it's hard to stop. There's a strong urge to push on through to completion. In reality, completion is a long way off. Need to pace myself better.

Finished deburring all of the leading edge ribs. Used the scotchbrite wheel for the crevices. The wheel has deep grooves which are great for deburring the flanges. That's after a light filing and then medium sandpaper. The grooves are so deep that it was easy to trim it so that one narrow piece of wheel is left. This fits great in the rib notches and makes deburring relatively quick and easy. Still takes an hour to do all 14 of those ribs. Check with the fingers for any rough edges, clean up as required. Viola! Done!

Then fluted all leading edge ribs. The inboard 908 ribs are thicker and much more difficult to flute. Took about an hour to do that.

Finally it was time to get the leading edge skin and put it in the cradle. Tried leaving the inside skin on for a trial fit of one rib, but decided that was asking for trouble.

Peeled the plastic fom inside of left skin. Then clecoed all of the 909 ribs to top side of leading edge skin. Looks like the next step is going to be very difficult.

4.5 hrs
Started this morning stripping plastic from the last piece of right main wing skin. Also stripped the left leading edge skin, since that's up next.

Finished match drilling left bottom skin, then removed all of the clecos and cleaned up all the drill shavings. Stored the skin away, but will need to deburr at some point.

I actually do work on it!

Bottom skins match drilled. The next step is to take 'em all off.

Then started the leading edges. Of course this meant 2.5 hours of deburring ribs. Got them mostly done, should finish it tomorrow.

Leading edge ribs as they come from the factory. The curve will have to be fluted out.

These next two pics are out of sequence. They belong with the previous post.

View from the bottom, showing the match drilled stringer running the length of the wing.

The inboard bottom skin ready to cleco on.

5.5 hrs
Don't know how I can work all day on the plane and only get 5 hrs, but it's accurate, since I was very precise with the stopwatch today. There was a bike ride, lunch, breaks, chores. I guess they add up.

Stripped the outboard left bottom skin, clecoed the whole bottom left, and match drilled most of it. Also stripped most of the right skins in preparation. Time flies.

Ran in to a little difficulty with the rib tabs that mate to the bottom of the rear spar. Several were a bit off, and one bent inward and will have to be fixed up when the bottom skin is removed. Moral of the story, when preassembing the skeleton, cleco all of the rib tabs to the spars, and adjust to get them just right. I have the opportunity to make amends on the right wing!

Received a letter from the FAA today. N207LT is officially reserved. This worth taking some time to document.

Using my initials, Charlie Foxtrot, or Wiskey Foxtrot just doesn't work. The problem is foxtrot. It just doesn't roll off the tongue. I was thinking about that on a bike ride about a year ago, as the project was starting, about the time the 2007 Lake Travis Cavaliers were starting their playoffs. We watched every game that season, home and away, even though the girl had graduated already. But hey, she graduated in 2007! And then the Cav's won state! And Lima Tango DOES roll off the tongue. So on a bike ride, I came up with the N number. 11 months later I finally spent the 10 bucks on the FAA web page to reserve the number.

Oh, and the Cavs won last night 42 to 3. It was an odd night, with the Dripping Springs Tigers mostly owning the 1st quarter, 3-0. The LT offense was just not the same team we'd been watching the whole year, largely due to the DS defense. There was a penalty on almost every play. Finally Garrett ran for a touchdown. But it was called back on a penalty, one of many that looked suspicious. The LT home crowd booed, an uncharacteristic event. But then the momentum changed completely in LT's favor. I started feeling bad about booing about the time the score was 28 to 3. Average score for the last 3 games - 52 to 1. That's a defense!
My heart goes out to the Erxlebens. Ryan was carted off on a stretcher.