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