17 - Outboard Leading Edge (complete); 20 - Bottom Wing Skins (complete); 22 - Ailerons (complete); 23 - Aileron Actuation (complete)

Big week - the fuselage kit will be delivered tomorrow, so I hustled to finish all non-fiberglass parts of the wing kit (it's DONE after almost 460hrs for two wings), and reorganized the workshop to make room for the fuselage crate.  Specifically, I did the following:

- finished last 29 rivets with my wife riveting and me bucking; attached Aileron trim wires to molex connector and connected to harness; attached access panel
- riveted trailing edge for left aileron (done)
- reattached torque tube-to-bellcrank pushrod (right); attached aileron to left wing; attached bellcrank-to-aileron pushrod (left)
- fabricated and installed landing light lens
- right aileron:  drilled all holes in stainless steel counterweight  through skin and through nose ribs; attached nose ribs to counterweight; deburred edges of nose skin; dimpled top and bottom skins in areas of stiffeners and ribs (did it right this time!)
- riveted ribs and stiffeners to top and bottom skins; drilled trailing edge; finished dimpling everything; countersunk trailing edge; riveted doubler to spar
- riveted nose ribs to nose skin; riveted spar to nose ribs; riveted top skin and bottom skin to spar and nose skin; riveted main (side) ribs together; riveted counterweight to nose skin; riveted main ribs to spar
- riveted trailing edge, and located hardware to mount (once wing assembly is placed on stand)
attached aileron to right wing (and attached flap to right wing; just put time here)


Attached aileron trim tab to access plate and screwed in place (pushrods are all in neutral position when final installed!):

OP38 - Aileron Trim (completed); 20 - Bottom Skins (almost finished riveting); 22 - Ailerons (nearly finished left; midway through right)

Lots accomplished this past week on the aileron trim for the right wing, bottom skins (right) and ailerons (left and right).  Specifically, the following were performed:

- attached aileron trim springs to pushrod, using inboard skin as a guide - it was somewhat difficult to get perfect "neutral" position of pushrod
- deburred edges of inboard bottom skin; deburred, dimpled and riveted flap gap and aileron gap fairings; tried to attach pins on micro-molex (got 3 good ones, 2 crappy ones that have to be redone - ordered more micro-molex pins and redo)
- deburred edges and holes of outboard and inboard bottom skins; final-drilled #19 holes; filed down and primed forward overlap of inboard/outboard skins
- attached springs to servo trim arm; attached 3 of 5 wires (with micro-molex pins) to micro-molex connector body
- riveted inboard bottom skin to wing assembly and riveted all nutplates onto inboard bottom skin; also had visitor (Terrell Y.; also constructing an RV-14A) and showed him how I rivet bottom skins
- riveted 90% of the outboard bottom skin - what a pain in the ass
- finished riveting everything on the bottom skins (including access nutplates), except for 29 rivets near skin junction (need wife to help with these); drilled, deburred and dimpled access plates
- deburred holes (4 skins) and edges (2 of 4 skins) of aileron skins for both wings
- finished deburring last 2 aileron skins; dimpled everything for the left aileron and also for parts of the right aileron (prematurely for trailing edge of skins, but this should still work - might be better; UPDATE - the ailerons are very straight, so I might choose this tactic for the right aileron); clecoed together left aileron assembly; reamed trailing edge @ ~8 deg angle (performed outside trailing edge since I already dimpled the trailing edge portion of the skins); disassembled left aileron
- riveted nose skin to nose ribs, top skin and bottom skin to spar, counterweight to skin, and side ribs to each other

Flap and aileron gap fairings clecoed to right wing assembly:

18 - Fuel Tank (installed final screw); 19 - Wing Systems Routing (completed right wing); 23 - Aileron Actuation (torque tube, pushrod, bellcrank); OP38 - Aileron Trim (fabricated EA-10, checked clearance); OP56 - Garmin AP Servos (installed Roll servo)

Van's charged my credit card for the remainder of the fuselage purchase, so in about 3 weeks, I hope to have that kit in my garage!  Exciting, but the clock is ticking for me to get most of the wing kit completed.

This week saw the attachment of the right fuel tank to the right wing, the start and completion of wiring the right wing (including 25' of RG400 for an eventual Bob Archer antenna in the wingtip), fabrication of all parts of the aileron actuation pushrods, bellcrank and torque tube (all but installing the bellcrank-to-aileron pushrod), installation of the roll servo to the right bellcrank, and fabrication and initial checks of the EA-10 aileron trim motor.  Details follow:

Wired the autopilot servo molex connector, and added a little silicone wrap to reduce stress at the bend:

16 - Top Wing Skins (finished); 17 - Outboard Leading Edge (finished); 18 - Fuel Tank (attached to wing); 22 - Ailerons (started fabricating, up until stiffeners)

I haven't posted in ~2 weeks, because of a little trip to NYC to watch the US Open and eat at a few restaurants that only NYC can provide.  We just beat Dorian, which is now a Cat 2 hurricane and likely to miss our house.  In honor of Dorian, I worked over 6 hrs in the shop today, as well as a bunch the days prior to our vacation on a total of 4 sections:

- riveted skin to all ribs, mounting bracket, splice strip and j-channel; drilled 3/8" hole for tie-down
separated, deburred hinge brackets; deburred, buffed, and dimpled nose rib flanges; countersunk and riveted hinge brackets to nose ribs; riveted nutplates to nose ribs
- separated, deburred, dimpled and riveted main ribs to hinge brackets; deburred spar and nose skin edges; clecoed nose ribs to spar and nose skin; match-drilled 6 holes in the stainless steel counterweight.  THAT by itself took well over 2 hrs, a lot of swearing, some boelube and water as lubricants, and a broken drill bit
- match-drilled #40 the remaining 8 holes in leading edge to SS counterweight; final-drilled #30 all 10 leading-edge holes to SS counterweight; final-drilled #40 holes in skin stiffeners
- Riveted right top skins to 4 ribs, skin overlap, and main spar (my wife used back-riveting bucking bar)
- Riveted top skins to rear spar
- riveted outboard aileron to spar and outboard rib; riveted inboard rib to skin and nutplates
- cut and deburred 32 aileron ribs (for both sides)
- riveted j-channels with my wife; top wing skins done
- attached leading edge skins to right spar (my wife helped buck the top flange); blind-riveted ribs to spar;
- attached right fuel tank to right wing … all nuts final-torqued and screws; except for ONE screw, b/c Van's provided me a nutplate that has no threads - time to order a tapping toolkit and tapping fluid

Riveted the last parts of the right outboard leading edge: