Fuel Tank Gap Rib Final Install

After cleaning and sanding the mating surfaces, the Fuel Tank Gap Rib was epoxied and riveted in  place using the Hysol structural epoxy.   A section of cap strip between the Gap Rib and the leading spar was carefully cut to size.  After sanding and cleaning the cap strip and fiberglass tank the cap strip was epoxied and held down with weights until the epoxy cured overnight.

Fuel Tank Gap Rib and Cap Strip Epoxied in Place

Next we started gathering the parts for attaching the aileron pulley assemblies.  We checked the aileron deflection with a angle meter, checking for 30 degrees either way.  We noticed we easily get the 30 degree down deflection, but having to tweak the opening on the fiberglass aileron leading edge to allow full 30 degree up deflection.  We're trying not to remove too much material, so it's a tedious on/off process  to slowly creep up on a little more than 30 degrees.  Hours: 3

Measuring Aileron Up/Down Deflection

Fuel tank gap filler rib

A short rib that will be attached between the fuel tank and the trailing edge (providing a surface for fabric attachment) was readied for installation.  It will be installed half way between the ribs that are on each side of the fiberglass gas tank.  The rivet holes for attachment were drilled, and the trailing edge aluminum was dimpled for counter-sunk rivets.     Hours: 0.5

Right wing flap and aileron hinges

Installed the flap and aileron hinge plates for the right wing.  We were more careful this time when drilling through the ribs for the flap hinges by drilling through one hinge plate and the rib before lining up the 2nd hinge plate.  This helped guarantee that no holes were accidentally drilled off center, as we didn't really want to make another hinge if we didn't have to.

The hinge plates and mating surfaces were scuffed and cleaned, and then were epoxied and riveted in place.  Below is a picture of one of the hinges.  Six hinges total were installed (three on both the aileron and flap for the right wing).   Hours 3.5

Aileron hinge riveted and epoxied in place

Right Wing aileron hinge

Drilled holes through the right wing ribs for attachment of the aileron hinges.  Made a mistake on one bracket as the two halves of the hinges did not line up perfectly when drilling, so created oblong holes on one of the hinge plates.  We fixed this by making a new aluminum hinge bracket from 0.063 aluminum.  The manual says to simply swing one bracket plate out of the way before drilling, but that's not as simple as it sounds with everything attached and clamped in place.  Hours 1.5

Flap/Aileron Alignment

We continued working on the alignment of the right flap and aileron.  We used 1/8" shims between the wing trailing edge and the flap/aileron.  We had to check at various points since this measurement varies along the trailing edge.  We also made sure the attach brackets were centered on the ribs top to bottom and they were clamped in place.  Hours: 1

Aileron/Flap Mount Bracket

 Holes were cut in the wing trailing edge to accept the Aileron and Flap mounting brackets.  Like on the previous wing, the holes locations were marked and then cut using a vibrating multi-tool.  This left a very narrow hole.  The holes were widened using a Dremel Cutoff wheel followed by round and straight files.

Holes cut in wing Trailing Edge

 We started aligning the the flap and aileron on the wing.  We still have more fidgeting with the location before drilling.  Hours: 3

Aileron/Flap location has begun

Right Wing Trailing Edge installation

Cleaned, epoxied, and riveted the aluminum trailing edge onto the right wing.  Care was taken to clean epoxy from the rib areas where the hinges will be later installed before it cured.  This was something we didn't pay close enough attention to on the left wing, which meant we had to take extra time later on to sand down dried epoxy on that wing.  After about 60 minutes of curing time, we smoothed the epoxy fillets.  Hours: 1.0

Trailing edge installed on right wing

Right Wing Trailing Edge

The next step is to epoxy the right wing trailing edge aluminum pieces. Before we can do that we need to prepare the mating surfaces. The areas were marked and then abraded. Hours: 1.0

Flap/Aileron Cable Guides

The holes in ribs 1 through 7 were drilled using templates.  Like on the left wing, we had to use "corrected" templates obtained from the Just Aircraft forums on http:\\www.wingsforum.com . The final holes were drilled at 5/16" and the required 2" piece of tubing was installed in each hole location.  Hours 1.5

Cable Guides drilled and Installed

Lift Strut Attach Brackets for Right Wing

A plethora of holes for the two lift strut attach brackets were previously drilled, and the brackets were cleco'd in place.  We removed the brackets, deburred all the holes, and cleaned/abraded the mating surfaces to get ready for epoxy.  We then epoxied and riveted the two strut brackets to the spars.

Lift strut bracket at leading edge of right wing

The center rivet on the back bracket was difficult to set because of a center brace that gets in the way.  We got around this problem by making a small wedge with a hole in the center.  We bent a rivet stem at first just to get the rivet into its hole, and then fed the rivet stem through the hole in the wedge.  The wedge then allowed us to use the rivet gun at a slight angle so that we could access and pull the center rivet.   We fought with this rivet for a while at first, but the job was much easier once we used the metal wedge Hours: 3.5

Strut bracket, with small wedge tool shown

Drilling Strut Attach Bracket Holes

Drilled all the holes in the two Strut Attach Brackets.  Cleco's were placed in approximately every other hole.  Hours: 1

Strut Attach Brackets Drilled & Cleco'd

Wing Trailing Edge and Strut Brackets

Started working on the right wing trailing edge.  As with the left wing, the trailing edge is comprised of two lengths of factory formed aluminum pieces. The were cut to final size, deburred and clamped in place.  At each rib, a single hole was drilled.  The holes were deburred and dimpled to accept a countersunk rivet,  The rib cap strip was countersunk at each hole to accept the dimpled trailing edge.  For the time being, everything is just cleco'd in place.

We moved on to locating the jury strut attach points using the same methods as the left wing.  The location of the brackets was marked with a Sharpie to be precisely located and drilled later.

Finally we attached the wing lift strut with AN4 bolts and checked for proper location.  Since the wing was setup at the factory, this was more of a check than anything else.  The strut attach bracket was clamped in place on the rear spar in preparation for drilling.  Hours: 4

Right Wing Lift Strut Attached

Right Wing Lift Strut Attach Bracket Clamped in Place

Work on Right Wing has begun

Today (after a bit of a hiatus due to other jobs that got in the way), we resumed work on the airplane.  We had previously finished most of the work on the left wing, so now we started on the right wing.  The first below picture shows the two happy builders with the left wing in our garage shop, anxious to continue building our Highlander.

Michael and Ed with the left wing

We started by installing the wingtip braces.  We had already made the braces when we worked on the left wing, so all we had to do was install them.  After some sanding, cleaning, drilling, epoxying, and riveting, we had the braces installed.  Below is a picture of the two braces (the two angled tubes) installed on the wing.  There are two stainless steel rivets in each end.

WingTip braces installed on left wing

 Next, we trimmed the ribcaps so that they were flush with the ends of the ribs.  We used small blocks of wood that we clamped to the ribs to use as a guide for the saw, as we learned (from the left wing), that it's easy to get the saw angle wrong without a guide.  Hours: 3.0

Trimmed Rib Cap

Wing Exchange

With the epoxy varnish dry, the near completed left wing was moved back to storage in the rafters of our storage shed.  The second wing was brought down from the rafters and moved to the garage to start the work on the right wing. Hours: 1

Ed and Mike moving the Wing to Storage

Left Wing Varnish, 2nd coat

Applied 2nd coat of epoxy varnish to left wing.  We used a couple of new respirator masks from 3M (7500 series) that we got from Amazon, which fit better and were more comfortable than the old ones.  They have the cartridge for organic vapors, and worked great to filter out the bad stuff.... didn't smell any of the varnish during application at all.   We also didn't use near as much varnish on this coat since the first coat had already done a pretty good job of sealing things up.  Hours 1.0

More Wing Sealing

The wing was flipped and the first coat of SuperFlite epoxy varnish was applied to the wing facing "down".  This allowed us to get the areas under the leading edge skin more easily.  Hours: 1.0

Sealing Wing

Wiped down the wing with acetone to clean the parts in preparation to epoxy seal the internal parts. The first coat of Superflite epoxy varnish was applied to the wing facing "up".  Hours: 2.5

Hinges and balsa

Added small pieces of lightweight wood (Balsa) to the flap and aileron hinges on the left wing.  These fill the volume between the aluminum plates that form the hinge points.  These weren't strictly required, but help with airflow around the hinges, and also help to strengthen them up a bit.  Once the pieces of balsa were in place, we sanded them even with the edges of the aluminum, and added a little bit of filler to fill in small gaps near the trailing edge.   Hours: 2.0

Balsa wood added in center of flap hinge

Pitot Tube Attachment Plate with Filler

Temporarily removed the pitot bracket, then applied lightweight filler to the pitot tube mounting plate.  Once dried, I sanded it to smooth the transitions.  Hours: 1.0

Pitot tube plate with filler

And Finally it Gets Installed

After allowing the epoxy to cure overnight, the pitot mount was finally able to be installed in new mounting plate.  Nice and secure.  Four countersunk screws into the nutplates secure the mount.  Hours: 0.5

Pitot mount FINALLY installed

Pitot Mounting Bracket Attached

The mount that will hold the pitot attach bracket was removed, sanded and cleaned with acetone.  The mating wood areas were sanded as well.  Hysol epoxy was mixed and thinly applied to the touching areas.  Finally the parts were riveted in place and after 30 minutes the epoxy was smoothed into nice fillets.

While the epoxy was curing, four nut plates were attached to the pitot attach bracket with solid countersunk rivets.  A handheld rivet squeezer was used to set these rivets.  Hours: 1.5

Pitot attach plate installed

Four nut plates installed on Pitot attach bracket

More Pitot Mounting Bracket Work

More work on the pitot tube mounting bracket and it's attachment to the wing.  Mounting holes were drilled and dimpled where needed.  The rib cap strip was countersunk to account for the three dimpled holes in that area.  Since the pitot tube mounting bracket is steel, it was painted to prevent rust.  Hours: 1.5

Mounting plate and supports drilled, dimpled and cleco'd in place

Pitot tube mounting bracket painted

Pitot Tube Work

Continued working on the pitot tube mount.  Two 3/4" wide legs were fashioned out of 0.032" 6061 aluminum. Part of the rib cap strip was removed to allow the pitot tube to fit close to the rib for better support.  All parts were deburred.  Using a long straight level, the parts were clamped in place to verify fit.  Next step will be to drill holes for rivets, dimple the locations that need it, and then finally epoxy and rivet the parts in place.  Hours: 1

Final parts clamped in Ppace

Two stiffener legs added

Rib cap strip removal for clearance

Left Wing filler & pitot tube

Filller work on the left wing is oh so close to being done.  Just a little more sanding to go.  Now we are working on the installation of the pitot tube on the left wing.  We currently plan on using a pitot assembly that is different than the plans, so are doing a little bit of engineering to figure out the installation.  We purchased a pitot tube attach bracket, and will mount the bracket on rib #5 (same as the plans). The aluminum attach plate that came with the pitot bracket doesn't quite work for us, so we will construct a new one.   Hours: 1.5

Left wing filler, cont.

Sanded some filler near the trailing edge of the left wing.  Needs another thin coat in a few spots and some more sanding, then the trailing edge should be ready.  Hours: 0.5

More Left Wing Bottom Filler Work

More 3M lightweight filler was added around the lift strut attach bracket and the jury strut attach bracket on the left wing.  Trying to get a smooth transition in these areas.  Once the filler had cured, it was sanded  to get good contours.  A little more work will be needed.  Hours: 1

Left Wing Bottom Filler Work

3M Lightweight filler was added to new areas and sanded smooth in areas that was previously applied.  Hours: 1.5

Left Wing Bottom Filler Work

After vacations and holidays we're finally getting back to working on the wings.  The transitions between ribs and spars is getting a thin coating of 3M lightweight filler to smooth the transition.  Before applying the filler the contact area was sanded and cleaned with acetone.  In addition to the rib/spar transitions, the area round the lift strut attach bracket was sanded and cleaned, as well as the area around the jury strut bracket.  We are also adding filler to the openings around the flap/aileron attach brackets.  We added tape to the outside of the gap and applied the filler from the inside (see picture).  Hours: 1.5

3M Lightweight Filler Added to aft wing area

Filler added to gap around Aileron/Flap Brackets

Left Wing, cont. filler work

Some sanding and another coat of  lightweight filler was applied the left wing.  After drying and some more sanding, we are now finished with the top surfaces of the left wing.  I forgot to take a picture of this before we flipped the wing over, so took a few shots from underneath after the wing was inverted on the table.

Filler applied around a lift-strut bracket (Wing is upside down)

Filler applied around the fuel-tank (Wing is upside down)

We also glued a wooden rib strip to the tank as mentioned in Appendix F of the manual.  The strip was beveled with a sander so that the joint came out pretty even on both ends.  The strip was fastened in place with epoxy, and held down temporarily with a few miscellaneous things lying around the shop while it dries.  Hours: 2.0

Rip cap strip glued down with misc weights on top

Even More left wing filler work

Sanded some more on the filler added on the top surface of the left wing.  Hours: 0.5

More left wing filler work

Added another coat of lightweight filler to the left wing surfaces, and sanded some of the areas.  Hours: 1.0

Left Wing Filler Work

We are in the process of cleaning up all the wing transitions with lightweight filler.  Areas include the leading edge "wrap" aluminum to front spar, leading edge "wrap" aluminum to the ribs,  trailing edge aluminum to ribs, fabric plate intersections, and the area around the fuel tank. We are using a 3M lightweight filler.  There are areas a second application of filler will be needed.  Hours: 4.5

Filler added around fuel tank

Filler added around fabric plate 

Left Wing Leading Edge Work

When we bought our Highlander kit, we had the factory install the aluminum leading edge.  The factory epoxied a 0.016" 2024-T3 aluminum sheet to the wing to smooth out the important leading edge section of the wing.  This process left some epoxy that needed to be sanded off to smooth out the transition.  We used a Dremel multi-tool with  a sanding head to remove the excess epoxy.  There are a few areas that will need some lightweight filler to finish off the transition. Hours: 1

Complete Nut Plate Installation in Left Wingtip

After riveting the nutplates in place yesterday, silicone plugs were installed into the nutplate threaded area to keep out epoxy.  You can see the orange plugs in the photo below.  Once the plugs were installed, a generous portion of Hysol epoxy was added to the the area covering the rivets and area between the rivets as indicated in the builder's manual.  After letting the epoxy setup for 45 minutes, a nice filet was made using a wet finger. Hours: 1.5

Nutplates installed and epoxy smoothed.  Orange Silicone plugs in screw holes

Nut Plate Installation

The nutplates on the top side of the left wing were installed.  The holes were countersunk to take CCC-32 rivets which were installed and then the nutplates were installed and the rivets pulled. Hours: 1

Nutplates on top of outer rib installed

Drilling Holes for Nutplates

After a much needed vacation and ordering parts from Aircraft Spruce we were able to do a little on the airplane again.  The Wingtips were removed and the holes previously drilled for screws were used to locate the two mounting holes for each nutplate.  The actual nutplates were used as drill guides.  The nutplates were cleco's to the rib through the center hole, and the mounting holes in the rib were drilled through the nutplate mounting holes for a precise location.  There are 25 nutplates to be installed in each wingtip area.  Time: 1 hour.

Left Wingtip Holes

We continued to work on the left wingtip mounting.  The holes on the bottom of the wing were laid out with a 2.75" spacing.  We are planning on using nutplates with AN526C screws, which is a 6-32 screws.  This requires a 9/64" drill bit.  We drilled a new hole in our edge drill guide we created earlier to have the needed spacing.  We made sure the wingtip was mounted correctly and level and clamped it in place.  We then drilled the holes and placed clecos in each location.  Hours: 3

Holes drilled and clecos installed

Nutplate to be used

Left Wingtip Work

Continued work on the left fiberglass wingtip. We laid out the mounting holes using a 3" spacing on the top of the wing. Hours: 1

Left Wingtip fitted

Spent a few hours fitting, trimming, sanding, and filing the left fiberglass wingtip.  It now looks like it fits very well, and has precisely 1/4 inch spacing between the aileron and the wingtip.  The trailing edge also lines up great with the wingtip.  We took our time and trimmed just a small bit at a time because it's easy to remove material, but very hard to add it back if you mess up.   We had an interruption in the middle of this work as power to the whole house was lost, but we were able to keep working after pulling out a generator and cranking it up. Hours: 3.5

Left wingtip temporarily clamped to wing

Various Left Wing Work

After a long day at work, we did some various tasks on the left wing and talked about future tasks.  One small section had to have some Hysol epoxy repair work.  We also started to discuss where to do some Hysol clean-up work on some of the Factory installed options.  We  also started to look at where filler is going to be needed.  Hours: 1

Fabric rivet holes, left wing tip

We finished drilling 1/8" holes for the fabric-attach rivets in the rib caps for the left wing.  These were spaced 3" apart along each rib on the top side of the wing (holes on the bottom side were spaced 2.75").  We also started fitting the fiberglass wing-tip to the left wing.  Hours: 2.0

Drilling Holes for Fabric Rivets on Wing Bottom

We decided to use fabric rivets instead of rib stitching on the wings.  To make drilling the holes easier, Ed welded up a drilling guide for the rib cap strip holes.  All we had to do is measure where we wanted the hole to be drilled and the guide allowed for a quick, precisely located hole to be drilled.  We played around a lot with hole spacing on the wing bottom.  When one hole was okay, another would be located in an undesirable location.  We finally settled on starting 1" along the rib cap strip from the front of the wing and the hole spacing was 2.75".  This allowed no holes to be drilled on or near the drag tubes and wing spars.  All holes were drilled in the bottom of the left wing.  Hours: 3

Ed drilling fabric rivet hole using drill guide

Fuel Tank Blocks and Fitting Trimming

Today we got two things done around the fuel tank.  First, five wood blocks were added between Rib#1 and the fuel tank.  These are added to prevent the rib from bowing inward during the fabric shrinking process.  Three blocks were added to the bottom area and two blocks were added to the top area.

Three blocks on the bottom

Two blocks on the top

The rib also needed to be trimmed to allow access to the fuel access hole in the fuel tank.  A Dremel with sanding bit made easy work of this. Tape was temporarily applied over the hole to keep foreign objects out of the tank. Hours: 2.5

Rib trimmed for fuel fitting

Attaching more fabric attachment plates

Today we attached two fabric attachment plates that go over the rear lift-strut attach brackets.  There are already two holes drilled in the bracket, and we had to precisely match the holes in the fabric plates to the brackets.  To do this, a hole on one side of the fabric plate was fastened in place temporarily with a cleco.  We then used our newly created strap-locator tool to locate and drill the second hole to guarantee that it lined up with the pre-existing holes in bracket.  We repeated this process for the second fabric plate on the other lift-strut bracket.  We then cleaned, epoxied and riveted the two fabric attachment plates on the left wing.  The picture shows Michael riveting one of the plates after epoxy was applied.  Hours: 1.5

Michael riveting on a fabric attachment plate

Fabric plates for rear lift strut attach points

Michael constructed another fabric plate for the rear lift strut attach bracket.  We've been primarily working on the left wing, but this is a part that will be used (eventually) on the right wing.

While Michael was working on this, I welded up a small tool that will help us align and drill holes in the fabric plates.  It's basically a strap-duplicator (hole-finder) that has a small nub on the bottom strap that will drop into an existing hole, and a thicker plate on the top strap with a 1/8" hole (for a drill bit) that is precisely aligned with the nub.  This allows us to precisely locate and drill holes in the fabric plate that lines up with existing holes in the strut attach brackets.  The two straps were made from an old band-saw blade that was in our recycle pile.  Nice to be able to find a new use for these old parts.  Hours: 2.5

Strap duplicator (hole finder)

Rear Lift Strut Fabric Plates

A fabric plate for the wing rear lift strut attach bracket was constructed out of the 4"x6" material provided with the kit. The parts had to be modified from the supplied template to clear the bracket. Hours: 1

Rear Lift Strut Bracket Fabric Plate and Template

Front Lift Strut Fabric Plates

Two fabric plates for the wings front lift strut attach brackets were constructed out of the 4"x6" material provided with the kit. The parts had to be slightly modified from the supplied template to clear the bracket. Hours: 1

Two Fabric Plates and Corresponding Template

Flap and Aileron Fabric Plates Installed

The two aileron and one flap pulley fabric mounting plates were drilled and deburred.  The plates were dimpled for flush mounted rivets and the mating surface was either dimpled or countersunk to match the plates.  All the parts were then removed and the mating surfaces were sanded with 220 grit sandpaper and then cleaned with acetone.  Hysol epoxy was spread on the mating areas and the plates were riveted into place with the appropriate flush mount rivets.  After the epoxy was given some time to set up, the excess epoxy was either removed or filleted.  Hours: 2

Ed applying Epoxy for one of the fabric plate installations

Flap pulley fabric plate installed

Aileron top pulley fabric plate installed

Aileron bottom pulley fabric plate installed