Post

Right spar assembly 4 complete, started assmebly 3

Posted Updated 4:00
By Fan Zhang
2 min read

TLDR

  • Installed all right ribs
  • Built inspection hatches
  • Started assembly 3 (bottom skin)
  • Misc: inventory

Right ribs

I spent a few hours to fully install all ribs to the right wing spar.

  • Dimpled a few ribs
  • Clecoed each rib to spar for alignment
  • Riveted each rib front and back

ref

It looks like a wing now!!

Front riveting was pretty easy. Riveting on the back was a little challenging because I installed the rear spar channel out of order, so it caused some obscruction when I needed to rivet the ribs from the back. Each rib requries either 4 or 5 rivets on the back, and due to the placement of the rear channel, I cannot rivet the center 2 rivets for each rib from the back. So I shot the rivets from the other direction.

ref ref ref

I think this should be fine. The critical ones are the ones at the bottom. I shot the bottom row from the back as instructed by the manual. This row (I think) has the highest chance interfering with the flap, and the other rivets should be fine.

ref ref

To be safe, I think I will change up the ordering for the right wing. I will do bottom skin as planned. Then I think I will swtich to aleron and flap, then top skin. This way I will get a better idea of rivet interference.

Misc invetory

Speaking of flap, I noticed I am missing 2 hinges required to build the flaps. I made an request in the Sling builder app and they are on their way. I should hopefully get them within a few days. So overall progress is not slowed down at all. I will be busy with bottom skin for sure next week.

Inspection hatch

I decided to take a short break before tackling the bottom skin (flipping the wing skeleton feels daunting as it’s super heavy and suuuuper twisty).

So I jumpped ahead and found a simple task to work on: inspection hatch.

It’s a pretty straightforward process: picked out the parts, cleaned, deburred, applied protective filming, dimpled, and riveted them together with 3.2mm countersink rivets.

Today’s temperature is 87 and my garage felt like 120. So I was able to only finish one out of the five in the afternoon before I gave up.. I continued the work in the evening to finish all 5 plates.

ref ref

Bottom skin

I then started on the bottom skin. With help from my dad, we moved the wing spar to the floor so I can reuse the tables for the skin.

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Then we cleaned out the wing kit crate and to get the bottom skin out of it. I briefly marked up the bottom skin dimple position before calling it a night.

The long bottom skin ref

The short bottom skin (near the root) ref

And marked for dimple ref

Wing, ~right_spar, ~right_ribs, ~right_skin
wing WG-ASS-004-R-F-0 WG-ASS-001-R-F-0 WG-ASS-003-R-F-0
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.