(Page 40-xx and 17-yy) Wing miscellaneous

After enduring the pain of installing the landing light I can say with some certainty that no one ever did this installation after the wing was built.  The build manual for the lighting kit is written for a person adding the kit to a completed airplane.  No way. 

Even without the wingtip installed, allowing access to the back of the light, starting the bolts into the sides of the light was difficult.  It was with trepidation that I applied 12 volts to the power wire for the light, my big fear being, of course, that the light would not illuminate.  This would require removal of the light, which I sincerely hope to never do.  It worked!

Cosmetically, the landing light is, by far, the worst thing I've done.  The primer on the upper surface of the wing is a result of scratches I inflicted on the aluminum during the numerous trial fittings.  The lens fits the opening poorly, though it's not immediately obvious to the casual observer.  Close inspection reveals a slight gap between the Plexiglas and the aluminum at some points.  The problem arises from drilling using the paper template which appears in the build manual.  If I ever build another -12, I'll devise another way.  I blindly followed the manual, which is usually a good procedure.  A little more thought before drilling would have helped.

Wing Stand

Even though I haven't finished the right wing (much less the left), I figured it would be a nice break to so some carpentry and build the wing stand.  I built the standard EAA wing stand, complete with

castors. 

Even though I evicted the car which used to share the garage with the airplane, I'm back to having a space problem, with a wing on each work table and the fuselage between them.  There's nowhere to put the stand once a wing is on it.

Update:  Turns out that the length of the carpet strips was too great, allowing the wings skins to come very close to the plywood gussets.  A lot of wood had to be removed from the gussets to make everything clear.  I also should have centered the carpet strips on the center of the horizontal 2X4s and probably should have made the strips wider.  Additionally, I should have bought higher quality castors with larger diameter wheels.  When pushing the stand around in the shop, the wheels frequently (usually) won't self-align, causing me to have to align them manually, an unnecessary PITA.  We live and learn.

(Pages 17-02 through 17-04) Gimme some (wing) skin, part deux

I cleco, therefore I am -- a new philosophy called Existential RVism

After the exercise in frustration that involved cutting the hole for and installing the landing light, skinning the right wing (I did that one first rather than the left as shown in the manual so I could see just how bad the landing light looks) was a walk in the park.  As was the case when I skinned the stabilator and rudder, I was surprised when all the rib holes lined up with the holes in the skin,

considering how much straightening and fluting had to be done to the ribs.  I was always able to pull the holes into alignment with an ice pick and awl, allowing clecos to be inserted.  The key seemed to be starting at the leading edge and going hole by hole with the alignment tools.  As I've always done, I primed the mating surfaces before joining. 

The pneumatic rivet squeezer has always been my favorite tool, and I made ample use of it (my first one wore out after the first few thousand rivets, found a great but cheap one on the aviation aisle at Harbor Freight).  I also bought from Aircraft Spruce their new design for cleco pliers which has the handles rotated up ninety degrees from the jaws.  This works much better on the horizontal wing surfaces, keeping the wrist in a natural position.

The bottom and top skins went on surprisingly easily (with the exception of the landing light), it's just quite tedious when you consider the process: align the holes, insert the clecos, remove the clecos, insert the rivets (about 70% of which require running a 1/8th-inch punch through the holes for final alignment/reaming), pull the rivets, repeat a few thousand times.

If you've ever been in my office, you'll probably notice a resemblance between my office and my shop in the first picture.  I use the same organization scheme in both.