Trailing Edge Adhesive

We applied adhesive to the top rear edge of the wing for the finishing tapes to be applied later.  Hours: 0.5

Bottom side of right wing

Right Wing Tapes

We installed all chord-wise protective tapes over the ribs on the top surface of the right wing, and also installed the tapes at both ends of the wing.  At the wing ends, we wrapped the tapes around the edge a bit and glued them in place.  We also installed two horizontal tapes on the top surface, and applied glue to part of the trailing edge for tapes that will be applied there.

As always, we worked through a few minor problems.  A few tape wrinkles went unnoticed at first, but were discovered when we were about to apply a crossing tape.  The wrinkles were fixed by spraying the area with acetone, peeling back the tape a bit to get the wrinkles out, applying more glue, putting the tape back down, and then smoothing it all out with an iron.    Hours 6.0

Wing Fabric Work

This weekend we got a lot of work done on wing fabric.  We located and glued the plastic strengthening rings down to the bottom wing surface.  a few of these will be opened immediately to help in the final constructions.  And the remaining ones will only be cut open if needed after the airplane is flying.  We also added fabric over the four wing strut attachment areas.  Two main attachments and two for the jury struts.

Next we added the rib tapes on the top wing surface.  Like the other tapes, this involved adding three coats of adhesive on the area, then applying the fabric and finally brushing a thinned mixture of adhesive on top and through the tape securing them in place.

Finally, we marked out the remaining areas on the wing that will need to have tapes added.  Hours: 5

Ed applying adhesive to Inspection Ring

Ed admiring our work on the bottom wing surface

Fabric tapes on the top wing surface

Fabric Work

Fabric reinforcement needed to be added to the top fabric plate where the aileron cable exits and around the fuel filler port.  "Doilies" were cut from pre-shrunk fabric.  Three coats of adhesive were added to the areas around the attach points.  Once the adhesive dried, the fabric cutouts were added and attached with thinned adhesive.

The wing was flipped over and the same thing needs to be done for the bottom aileron and flap cable exits fabric plates.  Also, around the strut attach brackets needed fabric reinforcement.  The fabric was cut and the area needing adhesive was marked in pencil.  Hours: 1.5

Fabric "Doilies" on the bottom of the wing