(page 13-02) A wing and a ....swear(word).

Or maybe a prayer to the god of aircraft construction that I'll do a better job inventorying the parts when the kits arrive.  With the empennage and fuselage kits, I inventoried essentially all the sheet metal parts and most of the bags, without always looking at every single part in each bag.

 I didn't count all the bolts, nuts, washers and certainly not all the rivets.  My thinking was that my time was better spent building, and if some small part was missing, I'd order it.  The small parts are cheap, and priority mail gets me the parts from Van's to North Carolina in two to three days.  This method worked surprisingly well, with only a couple of nuts or nut plates missing.  When the wing kit arrived, for some reason I didn't inventory anything.  I simply spread the various parts around the garage wherever I could find space.  I don't know why I did this.  Step one of the wing section of the build manual called for cutting apart an angle about two feet long into 20 smaller angles and putting these aside for later use.  You guessed it.  I couldn't find this angle.  Over the next three days, I spent at least three hours searching for the part.  On day two, having abandoned hope and cursing myself for my sloppy inventory technique, I made the decision to reorder but, fortunately, put it off for a day.  On the next day, I found it cleverly hidden out of sight on a box beneath a table.  I had to get on all fours to see it!  Inventory technique exonerated (except for the wasted time).

Step two called for cutting apart a stiffener plate.  Couldn't find it for two days.  The moral of this story is to do a proper job with the inventory and avoid this anguish.  With the fuselage kit, which has more parts and more different parts than any other kit, I made a notation on the inventory sheet telling where each part or bag was put.  I named the various cabinets and sets of shelves, then put that name next to the checked-off part on the inventory sheet (being an engineer, I'm surprised I didn't number them instead of naming them).  With the wing kit, I can't even find where I put the inventory sheet!  I am, at this moment, taking a solemn vow to do a better job with this.

Step three of the wing kit involved drilling and tapping four 5/16th-inch holes for the tie-down rings in the wing spars.  To better explain my fear of this, realize that the wing spars arrive as multiple anodized plates and angles beautifully riveted together.  Each spar is a thing of beauty.

 Doing anything to it makes me nervous, conjuring up visions of a vary large check which would be required to get a replacement.

The drilling and tapping went well.  As shown, the back of the tap handle accepted a 3/8th inch ratchet drive, which greatly facilitated the task.  Boelube was applied to the tap initially, and for every two rotations clockwise, I rotated the tap one rotation counterclockwise to clear the chips (a technique I learned as a student working in a machine shop).

You may be wondering why both top and bottom got tapped.  Best I can figure, it's to allow a hard point on top of the wing if a person is willing to drill the wing skin to expose it.  I'm thinking ahead to somehow using these to support the wings from the ceiling joists once they're finished.

(page 29A-08) Map box

Building the map box requires, among other things, match drilling holes into piano hinges (my 233rd favorite thing) from pre-punched holes in the box walls and map box door.  A seeming misalignment after initial drilling and clecoing, a result of the match-drilled holes being not perfectly parallel to the door edge, turned out not to be a problem.

The trial fits of the Camloc fitting into the half-inch hole (produced with a step drill) seemed at first impossible for two reasons: 1) getting the T-shaped end of the Camloc through the hole required a precise angle, almost like a puzzle, and 2) extending the T-shaped end of the Camloc with finger pressure in order to get it through the hole was, to put it mildly, difficult.  Then it occurred to me that the cleco pliers worked perfectly for this.  Problem solved (second picture).

Attaching the map box to the right instrument panel involved squeezing some AN426AD3 rivets in holes which could be reached with the Main Squeeze and pulling CCR-264SS-3-2 in holes which couldn't be reached.  The pulled, flush rivets ended up, as usual, not quite flush.  As was called out in the plans, I countersunk the holes to accept the AN rivets (100 degree), all the while wondering if the countersink should have been 120 degrees as is the case with other flush, pulled rivets.  I couldn't find the answer.

 I did cure the lack of flushness (yeah, I know it's not a word) by tapping the rivet face with a 3/16-inch drift (which fit the rivet exactly) while placing the reverse side against a solid surface.  Worked perfectly.

After reading a post on the forums yesterday, I realized that I need a different left-side instrument panel and center panel, along with a four other parts already installed (more drilled-out rivets).  This is a result of Van's switching to the Garmin radio and built-in intercom.  I'm assuming they'll send them free, since the parts they sent with the fuselage kit are wrong.  They're usually good about such stuff, and I'm a bit surprised they didn't send them already.  I'll call the Mothership tomorrow to get this resolved.  I'm so close to finishing the fuselage kit I can taste it.  I'm expecting the wing kit to be cake by comparison.  Still have no idea where to store the wings when they're finished.