(page 17-06) Wingtip close out

I had dreaded starting on the wingtip close out, because with all those tabs to be bent to all those different angles, I figured there would be lots of trial-and-error fitting.  A wooden tool was required to be built, which greatly facilitated the physical bending of the tabs, but the amount of the bend was

left up to the eyeball.  As can be seen in the picture, the amount each tab needs to be bent is specified to one degree.  At first I took this to be more Oregonian humor, but decided it's the perfect angle that the CAD model spit out, and the builder is to come as close as he or she can to this ideal.  Fortunately, close is good enough.  The tabs can easily be bent with the fingers to fine tune everything during installation.






I sketched the angles in five degree increments on a piece of cardboard cut from a white paper plate  (shown on the second pic) and eye-balled it as best as I could.  Worked great.  The only two tabs to

require a bit of fiddling were the forward-most two (left in the first pic), with one being a bit greater than 90 degrees.  I straightened and re-bent those two a couple of times, finally lining the holes up with the ice pick enough to insert clecos.









Overall, this was nowhere near as bad as I expected.  The cleo insertion was fairly typical, requiring the usual tools (ice pick, 1/8th inch punch

used as a reamer and, on a couple of holes, the hand held #30 drill bit mounted in an old chuck).  Now, the only thing left on the right wing is the strobe light fairings and electrical connectors.  The fiberglass fairing has to be bonded and riveted to the aluminum.  Doesn't look like fun. Then I get to do it all again on the left wing.