Finally after all of the hullabaloo associated with the wing tanks and their plumbing...and testing, it was time to wrap it all up.
The following shots are of the right wing's root bay with the vent and fuel lines installed and hooked up. The skin is lifted up to reveal the plumbing.
The next picture shows the fuselage vent line termination as it runs aft to the belly vent. This picture is of the passenger side. You can also see the protruding standpipe. Note the gray colored support bracket that was associated with the previous fuselage vent plumbing. It was removed as it was not needed in the modified (and final) version of the fuselage vent system.
One final picture, showing a late modification, namely the olive drab colored tube near the bottom. There was a slight tendency for the fuel line to lift when the excess fuel line was retracted into the root wing bay as the wing was seated against the fuselage. This simple tube was installed between the ribs to retain the slight downward slope of the fuel line upon final installation of the wing to the fuselage.
One last picture, I promise, of the right wing and its plumbing. Seen here are the quick disconnect fittings and the clearance available to accomplish removal/installation. Quite happy with the way it came out.
As the wing skinning process began, service bulletin 14-11-03, was accomplished, as denoted below.
Yours truly popping one of a few rivets in the lower wing skin.
One section at a time with lots of cleco's to remove any twist/distortion to the skins so the matched holes align perfectly. Lots of fun.
Family affair...here the older son home from grad school over Christmas break renews acquaintances with N79AM.
More family times with son #2 home from Aggieland over Christmas break...the brain trust hard at work.
The access panel adjacent to the wing tip, in the last wing bay. Ease of access to all fittings of the wing tanks and interconnect plumbing near the filler neck.
Time to flip it over and work the top skins....
An almost finished product. Wing tip comes next.
The wing tip going into place.
A good shot of the wing tip access panel showing ease of service of any fitting associated with the wing tank filler neck.
The left wing has the pitot tube, angle of attack plumbing and the stall warner assembly. Below is a shot of the externals mounted on the underside leading edge of the wing.
And next, a shot of the internals. Pitot mast on the left with the clear tubing (transitioning to the green tubing), then the dab of high strength silicone attaching the green tubing to the angle of attack probe (an oversize blind rivet with shank removed) and finally, the stall warner attached to the rib on the right....all flanked by the wing access panel.
Next big milestone was the fitting of the wings to the fuselage. Shown below are shots of the right wing going into the fuselage for the first time. A couple of trim cuts to remove slight interference and we were home free. No big deal fitting one wing at a time...it became a big deal when both were going in together though.
Not a great picture for all the drama required to get the left wing to seat properly. I had to resort to some ratcheting straps to get sufficient compression on the wing to fit into the bushings. Also used a Harbor Freight muffler expansion tool to aid in the process. In the end, with sufficient silicone grease, the spar pins went quite nicely into the bushings.
The end result - first wing fitting! A site for sore eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment