3.3 Hours -
Time to play catch-up on the right tank. I’m not going to write as much detail about the Checkoway method in this post since i already talked about it in my log entries for the left tank. The left tank posts that are equivalent to today’s work are from September 18 and September 19.
I started this work session by temporarily assembling the right tank inside the cradle. Once all the ribs and baffle were in place, I set the tank on the wing. As with the left tank, the gap between the leading edge and fuel tank skins was minimal.
The right wing temporarily assembled with the leading edge and fuel tank!
Once the tank was clamped down, I drilled the inboard rib to baffle to z-bracket holes to #30. Then, it was time to start taking things apart (I felt like all I did today was assemble and disassemble the wing). Once the leading edge was removed, I was able to drill the outboard rib to baffle to z-bracket holes.
I drilled the inboard rib to baffle to z-bracket holes to #30.
After the inboard rib is drilled, the leading edge is removed so I can drill the outboard tank rib to z-bracket holes.
With the inboard and outboard z-brackets drilled, I removed the entire tank except for the baffle, inboard and outboard rib. After removing the majority of the tank, I drilled the remaining baffle to z-bracket holes to 1/8”.
The tank, minus the baffle, inboard rib, and outboard rib, is removed and the rest of the baffle to z-bracket holes are drilled to 1/8".
Next, I reassembled the leading edge and fuel tank on wing. I was a little worried at first because the gap between the skins looked wider than before. However, as I continued clecoing the tank to the wing, the gap tightened up nicely. Once the leading edge and tank were firmly reattached, I drilled joint plate to fuel tank skin holes to #19 using the holes in the tank skin as a guide.
Everything is put back together in order to drill the joint plate to tank skin holes. These are drilled to #19 to accomodate #8 screws...confused yet.
The tank then came off, once again, and was returned to the cradle for final drilling of all the remaining holes. I drilled the rest of the baffle to rib holes and enlarged the tank skin to spar screw holes to #19. I still need to drill all the skin to rib holes to #40 and countersink the skin to baffle holes, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
Because there is no access hole in the right leading edge, everything has to come off again.
With the tank and baffle removed, I'm able to see the z-bracket holes for the first time. Looks good.
Finally, I set the right tank in the cradle where all the holes will be final drilled and/or countersunk accordingly.
