4.0 Hours -
It’s been a couple of days since I’ve worked on the plane, so I was happy to have the day off work with little to do other than spend time in the garage.
To start the work session, I applied some blue RTV to each of the ribs/conduit. Van’s recommends using either RTV or tank sealant, so I opted for the RTV just to avoid tank sealant whenever possible. The purpose of the RTV is to prevent the conduit from moving or vibrating too much. I applied sealant on both sides of each rib, but only on the aft side of the conduit.
I placed some blue RTV on both sides of each rib to prevent the conduit from moving.
Next, I put the inboard bottom skins back on the wings and worked on a plan for how to rivet them. I’ve opted to keep the wings in the cradle while working on the bottom skins. Between my long arms and some gentle bending of the skins, I decided I could make it work. Eventually, I broke out the rivet gun and went to town on the left wing. I followed the plans as closely as I could (they’re not very clear here), and started by riveting the skin to the aft spar in the wing walk area. This was a little tricky/awkward because it was a long reach up to the aft spar, and even more of a challenge to place the bucking bar blindly. Once this section was riveted to the aft spar, I started working my way down the wing walk ribs. The closer I got to the forward spar, the easier this became. Once I finished the entire length of these ribs, I went back to work on the aft spar and riveted to the next rib. At this point, I’d been working for four hours and decided to call it a day.
A couple of dings, but overall, the first half of the inboard bottom skin looks good.
Tomorrow, I’ll be heading back to the Burnet, TX, to do a little more tailwheel flying in a Super Cub. If all goes well, I’ll have my tailwheel endorsement by the time I return to San Antonio on Saturday!
