4.0 Hours -
It was a big day in the airplane factory today.
I started off by leveling the wings in the stands. I thought this was going to take a lot of time, but it ended up only taking a few minutes. Initially, each end of the main spar was only off level by less than a degree. The adjustment mechanism on my stands worked perfectly…when I turned it the right direction! A few twists of the threaded rod, and the spar was level. I repeated this on both ends of the forward spar before tightening everything down.
The obligatory spar leveling pictures. 0.0 on the inboard ends.
0.0 on the outboard ends too...not bad.
With the spars level, I started fitting skins. The first skin clecoed on was the top inboard skin (w-702), along with the wing walk doubler, on the left wing. Next, the top outboard skin (W-703). Then, the same on the right side.
The top inboard skin on the left wing was the first skin I fitted...this is going to be a long process.
Both of the top left skins clecoed on.
Since the skins were on, I decided I better check the wing for twist. The RV-7 wings should have no twist in them. To measure this, I hung two plumb bobs from the main spar, one at each end. I then measured the distance from the aft spar to the plumb bob’s string. The measurement at both ends was identical…no twist. Knowing that the wing was straight also allowed me to clamp the aft spar to the wing stand supports. The wings are solidly locked into place now.
After the top skins were on, I checked for twist using plumb bobs hung at each end of the wing.
Next, I fit the bottom inboard skins on each wing (W-704L and W-704R). However, I couldn’t fit the outboard skins (W-705) because I ran out of clecos. I probably need 100 more if I want to have all the skins clecoed on at the same time. Overall, I have 405 clecos in the the wings with about 20 remaining in my cleco storage container (a coffee tin). My hand is killing me from using the cleco pliers so much…one of those pneumatic cleco pliers sure is looking nice right about now.
The bottom left inboard skin.
I was able to attach both bottom inboard skins before I ran out of clecoes. I think I need about 100 more.
Finally, I drilled all the skin holes on the top side of the left wing. This went fairly quick, but it was a lot of moving clecos around, and I’ve already mentioned my sore hands!
The next couple of sessions will just be drilling the skins to the wings. After that, it’s time to start working on the leading edges.
