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Left wing skin misc clean up, and discussing panel with MPB

TLDR

  • Worked on bottom side of left wing skin
  • Talked to Steve from Midwest Panel Builders about my panel’s configuration

Left wing skin bottom side

Since I moved the left wing onto a table yesterday, I now have better access to the bottom side.

Today I installed a row of 4.0 mm flush rivets to the bottom side of the leading edge below the landing light. The row of rivets has to match a doubler strip. It was a pain to get the holes to line up. I had to match drill a few really difficult ones. But in the end I got it done.

img Bottom row of rivets are installed below the landing light

Pitot tube clean up

The pitot tube assembly was missing 3 rivets. I have been holding it together using cleco. Now that I finally have access to the bottom side, I squeezed a few 4-3 rivets to close the assembly.

And there is a huge gap between the assembly and the wing skin itself. I am very confused why there is such a gap. The whole assembly is really not secured solid by anything. When Jason my EAA tech counselor first saw this I remember he was confused as well.

As he suggseted, I added a band of blue RTV to seal the gap. The stuff is pretty soft, so it doesn’t stop the pitot tube from wobbling when I shake it, but at least it blocks air and dirt from going into the wing.

img RTV on top, and 3 new rivets on the assembly (bottom three)

Panel Discussion

The high light of the day is that I called Steve from Midwest Panel Builders to discuss a few things on my panel configuration.

Steve is very knowledgeable to the build configuration and build process. I asked him a bunch of questions to clarify what’s going to be on my panel.

In the end, we reached agreement on the panel design, and alas the panel works begins!!

The TLDR is that I am going with single G3X + dual comm radio + GNX 375 navigator, and no nav radio. Since I have bought the smart fuel boost pump system, they will also just build the wiring harness direclty into the main wire bundle, which is very nice.

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