Actually, that title isn’t 100% accurate. Really, this whole time I’ve been talking about all the deburring, I’ve been referring solely to the really tedious part: that is, getting into all the little nooks and crannies in the ribs with a needle file to make things nice and smooth. It’s the kind of work that makes your eyesight wander a bit when you stop, because it’s been a while since you looked at anything more than a foot away from your face.
But hey, it’s done! I went through all the left wing main ribs today went cross-eyed about five times, but got through. The reason I say the title isn’t 100% accurate is that there will still be more deburring; all the rivet holes will need a pass once they’ve been match drilled and dimpled and so forth, along with whatever holes I drill for wing plumbing; pitot lines, electrical conduit for wingtip lights, etc.
That brings me to the other thing I worked on today, trying to plan all the wing plumbing. I could theoretically drill the holes for this stuff after putting the wing together, but it’d be a lot easier to drill the ribs while they’re not attached as opposed to working inside the partially-assembled wings. So I’m working on planning all the stuff I’ll need to run lines for, and then I have to decide where to run the lines, making sure that I don’t interfere with the aileron pushrods or anything (control jamming is A Bad Thing).
So now I’ve got a sort of worksheet going so I can go forth and research. What pitot do I want to use, and should I get a heated one? I know I want an AoA system, but which one? The Dynon system, for example, requires a specific pitot tube, but I’m not sure if I want an EFIS-integrated AoA. AFS makes a good standalone system, but it looks like it’ll require a second pitot tube (I could be wrong, I haven’t fully researched this). Of course I’ll need wire runs to the wingtips for nav lights. Do I want to put landing lights in the leading edges? Aveo Engineering’s ZipTips look really slick, but I hear they’re Expensive with two or three capital Es.
So yeah, lots to think about. In the meantime, after finishing up all that deburring, I clecoed all the main ribs to the left wing spar. The rationalization I made for doing this was to help me visualize wiring runs and such, but mostly it was so I could step back and cackle a little.
