Wings

Wing Construction

May 7^th,2006
	This is the beginning. I took my first step in building my own airplane today. I only worked on the project for about 45 minutes. Most of that time was spent hemming and hawing. Eventually, I had nothing left to do but make the first cut.

	A few minutes later, I had my first form block rough cut.


May 9
	Cut out the form blocks for the aileron pocket ribs, the aileron nose ribs, and the flap nose ribs.
May 12
	I packed up my rough cut form blocks and spent the better part of 4 hours cutting and sanding until I was left with my finished form blocks. I’m just waiting on some aluminum now!
May 14th
	I remade two of the blocks to include the tabs. Now I have the patterns and the formblocks.

May 15
	No real work on the ribs. I did receive my wings manual from Eric Newton. So I spent an hour or so reading the first chapter. Even with just a cursory look through the manual, it looks like it will definitely pay for itself in time saved head scratching.
May 16
	Didn't have too much time. Read through chapter 2 in the build manual. Something is better than nothing right?
May 17
	Got my shipment from Wicks and Avery. Funny how I thought I'd be cutting aluminum right off the bat. Seems I forgot a couple of backing blocks, alignment hole bushings, a few bolts, the Rib cut out template, etc. I'll Be collecting/making all of those parts over the next two days. Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll be cutting my first rib blank. For tonight, I rough cut the master rib form backing block and the flap nose rib backing block.
May 18-21
	More reading than anything this weekend. I did manage to get out there each day to fiddle with something. Whether it was Sanding or organizing the clutter that is my garage. Just to give you an idea of what I started with here's a picture. I'm not terribly proud of this. It just kind of happened when we moved to the family farmhouse three years ago.
	On the bright side it's getting better. Much of the clutter seen here has been removed. It's amazing how big the garage actually is without all the garbage in there. This weekend also had me replacing the window on the second floor of the garage. Until now it was a sheet of plywood covering the opening. Can't have it leaking on my airplane so I installed a proper window. It was lots of work, but the second floor is now weather proof. baby steps :) As for building I am stuck on getting the drill bushing for the form block. I'm sure there is a source locally. I just don't know who that would be. I'll get it sorted out sometime this week I'm sure.
May 22,23
	I got out to the garage and looked at the plans a couple of times. More sanding and reading. I'm starting to think I'm pretty much stalling at this point. Seems I need a good kick in the pants to get me going.
May 26-29
	Between planting the garden, attending multiple BBQs, and even one parade, I managed to spend a considerable amount of time out in the garage this weekend. I actually cut my first piece of aluminum! Yay! It's just a blank at this point but at least I started in on it right?
	So, here's where I'm at. I marked the locations of the lightening holes on the formblock. I also marked how far out the flange would be. Then I drilled and bushinged (is that a word?) the centers of said holes. I thought I had finished the sanding and drilling of the wing rib template. No such luck. Seems I needed to spend a bit more time on that.
	Another bright spot on the weekend was the removal of my old bench, and replacing it with a proper work surface.
	Out with the old and in with the new.
May 30
	I drilled and cut my first nose rib. It came out pretty good, but I know I can do better. I'm starting to think that I'll need to try different methods of cutting.
May 31
	I broke out the router and a 1/8 round-over bit tonight, and eased the edge of the form block. Nothing much else happened. I cut one more blank out of aluminum and called it a night.

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