Right wing main spar

Unfortunately the right wing main spar had the same problem as the left one.  We spent some time tonight trying to fix the mis-bent spar.

Left Wing Skeleton

After fixing the spar on Tuesday night we reassembled the left wing skeleton and finished match drilling the remaining holes.  We then prepped and primed all the ribs and the remaining parts of the rear spar.  It was a ton of repetitive work but now the left wing is ready for assembly.  We're setting it aside for a few weeks and moving onto the right wing main spar (hopefully that one was done correctly -- I'm not betting on it) while we wait for some conduit to arrive. 

Spar flange fix

Well, tonight we had to do something we should never of had to do.  Van's shipped us a main wing spar that was underbent.  You can see that the ribs and the spar flange weren't flush from the last set of pictures.  What this meant is that we needed to essentially reverse the bend on the main spar.  We were hoping that we had done something wrong and that a quick fix could be made.  However, it turns out that the mistake was Van's.  The latest edition of the RVator (the bi-monthly journal from Van's) had a similar story of an RV-9 builder with the same problem so the fix was really clear.  Anyways, we're not happy we had to spend a night fixing a problem that would've been much much easier to get right in the first place.

The "good" flange (bent inwards)

The incorrectly bent flange (bent outwards)

Scott using the hi-tech bending tool to slowly bend the spar flange

Ribs, ribs and more ribs (plus some assembly)

Today was almost all about deburring, cleaning, straightening and fluting all the ribs for both wings and both fuel tanks.  It was an incredible amount of work but with both of us working, we had it done after about 5 hours.  We then assembled and match drilled the ribs to the main and rear spars.

Pieces laid out.

The new die grinder to make deburring the wing ribs a little easier.

 Darren using the new die grinder on the ribs.

 Scott using the bench grinder to debur the edges.

 Things are looking ready for some assembly.

Hmmm.. That spar flange doesn't look quite right.... It should be a little more flush than that.... More on that later.

Left Wing Rear Spar Assembly

We spent some time on Friday night assembling the rear spar.  We riveted the stiffner plates and the spar doubler to the rear spar.  It wasn't a ton of work but we also worked on the attach brackets.

We took Saturday off as we went to the football game in Hamilton.  We had great seats in the first row and for those of you who watched the game we were right beside the TV cart when Eddie Davis got smacked into it.  I can't believe he got up after that hit.  It was an amazing game and the Riders won so it was a great day! 

The parts laid out for the evening's work. 

Scott squeezing some rivets. 

Darren taking a turn at sqeezing some rivets. 

A shot of the field at Ivor Wynne Statium.

We got to hear the Tigercat's Cheer.... Something like "Oscar-wee-wee, Oscar-wah-wah, Tigercats eat'em RAW!"  

Our Saskatchewan Roughriders out on the field. 

A parting shot of the Scoreboard... I know you cannot see it but it was a 33-28 win for the Riders.

For the record the Ti-cats fans were great, and Ivor Wynne ranks as the best place to watch a CFL game in Eastern Canada by a wide margin.   The stadium is in a sketchy looking neighbourhood, but the people, and game time environment make it a great place to take in a game.

Left Wing rear spar

Today we spent a few hours building the wing stand that we'll need to construct our wings.  Once that was done we spent the rest of the time preparing the rear spar.  We deburred all the edges, match drilled the stiffner plates and the spar doublers, countersunk any holes as necessary, removed material for the aileron push-rods and deburred all holes.  It was also necessary to dimple the spar where the doubler and stiffner plates will make access almost impossible.  Finally we prepped and primed all the parts. 

The lumber for the wing stand. 

 The pieces we will be using for the rear spar.

 Darren using a file to enlarge a hole for the aileron push-rod in the spar doubler.

 Spar doublers cleco'd into place.

The spar doublers primed and waiting for riveting to the rear spar.

Left wing tie down bracket

We manufactured the tie down bracket for the left wing (used when the airplane needs to be tied down outside).  After we cut the bracket to size (on the new bandsaw), we match drilled it to the spar.  We next connected and match drilled the platenuts, countersunk the rivet holes, deburred, prepped and primed the bracket.  Once that was done we attached the platenuts and then started over.  We learned that clecos are not the right way to align platenuts -- always use the screw or bolt!  

The plans for the attache bracket that we needed to build.

The tie-down bracket installed on the spar (note Darren's patriotic Canada shirt for Canada Day)