Upper Wing VII

7/11/2007

The upper wing saga continues. It seems never-ending. Both wings have been tramelled for a while now with their new drag blocks - all is OK.

The tip bow was finish sanded and looks nice. TIP: On the plans, the tip bow profile shows a radius with a kind of French curve look, I replicated this with a lot of hard work, there really is no point - just use a regular round-over router bit set up in a shaper [or in my case, a router bolted inverted to a box with a hole in it].

Both wings were taken outside, flipped over, and set back in the spar bench jigs on opposite sides of the bench, i.e. the left wing is now bottom-up, but sits on the right side of the bench. The good news is, both wings slotted perfectly into the opposing jigs... 'means I have some consistency somewhere! The left aileron well is now complete with 1/32 ply forming the radius in the well. Spar filler strips [with a 1/8 gap each side of each strip to allow for drainage] were then fitted. I removed the spar bench jigs so I had clearance for clearcoating. I clearcoated the left wing under-side [now facing up] to completion [2 coats]. It was then turned over so I could apply clearcoat to the areas I couldn't get to previously.

I am fitting the old type external flying wire brackets because I have SS wires to match that format already. I made a mess of 3 of my brackets which I had acquired in a trade, so I decided to finally go buy myself a metal cutting bandsaw and do some steel cutting. The brackets have now been cut and match drilled. I usually get fittings powder coated, but I want these brackets on now, so I am going to primer them instead today so I can put them to bed tomorrow.

To do: right wing - aileron well, finish sand tip bow, clearcoat.

then

Fit LE ply to both wings, feather-in the foam tips to the LE ply with Superfil, finally splice the two wings together, fit center section bottom ply, clearcoat, then hang on the wall... phew.