Some of the final preps taking place for readying the rear spar. In this case, an attach angle is riveted to the spar that will be used to form an attachment for the underside of the wing tip...complete with gray, rattle-can, self etching epoxy primer.
On the other end of the rear spar is the business end, which mates to the fuselage fitting. Note the mixture of solid and blind rivets.
The nose ribs need a little love too...in the form of some "nutplates", which is a liberal use of the term. The kit assembly instructions show only 1 conventional nutplate in the drawing, along with a note reading "dimple, 2 places/nutplate". Later on, the verbiage refers to a nose rib with 3 nutplates and so the head scratching began. Finally figured out (between 3 of us) that it meant another conventional nutplate AND the W-0028 doubler plate....overthinking at it best/worst.
Back to the tail ribs and match drilling through the hinge ribs and hinge bracket assembly for a perfect fit.
Two of the tail ribs feature doublers, as shown here.
Young Padawan of the Fighting Cyclone clan (ISU) but with an aerospace engineering degree! His older counterpart hails from the cold north of Minnesota and occasionally winters in the warmer confines of the not-so-warm south. Its awesome having relatives (nephew and brother-in-law) who actually get excited about the prospects of menial labor in a cold dark garage (hangar)...all for the sake of seeing fragments of an experimental aircraft come together - my kind of peeps! Thanks again Brian and Stan.
First tail ribs getting cleco'd and riveted to the back side of the main spar. Four hands in a space of a few square inches....and at times there were 3 of us with 6 hands in the same space....but we were effective.
The supervisor doing a quality check as the rear spar goes onto the end of the tail ribs. Older guys rule!
Surrounded by a sea of ribs.
The stall warner goes together with a small plate, an arm and an assortment of thick, thin and larger diameter washers along with 2 types of machine screws and stop nuts.
Awaiting placement of the arm and stop nuts, washers.
Same song second verse - that would make this the right wing! Eureka - so that's why the hat is on forward!
The young aerospace engineer enjoyed a brief analysis of the multiple layers of varying length of spar cap material, not to mention the varying cross section of the web, so I took a couple of shots to preserve the detail for myself. It really is a nice piece of work from the factory.
The final touches going toward the install of the rear spar of the right wing. Hat issues...
Nose ribs going onto the spar.
All of the help was great. At one point I just had to go inside and put the finishing touches on a load of laundry and brag to my wife that the airplane was building itself - awesome!
Back side of the root end of the spar showing ribs, spar web and caps detail - pretty!
Close to a stopping point. Since I have opted to replace my fuselage fuel tank with Viking Aircraft's wing tank conversion, I am halting the construction process, so I can work on the wing skins, before they are installed. There will be some access hatches and filler neck cutouts to be made; much simpler if not attached to the wing structure.
Some final detail shots of the front spar, prior to riveting.
More exciting stuff to come as the drama builds.
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