I'm flashing you...

Thought you'd like to see the LED nav lights in action.


All it took was a 9v battery.

Position lights consume 0.35 amps of power.

Position + strobes take 1.65 amps. That's the LED strobes firing.

Lighter, cheaper, lifetime warranty, no noise from the power supply. Me likes!!

Spreading her wings....

I'll spare you the nitty gritty details, but the left wing went together with no problems....

Despite a nagging worry, I even managed to get the wing/strut mount plate mounted in the right direction, and even on the bottom of the wing not the top. (Ok, the Dremel got away from me once.)

Ok, ok... I'll admit it. Just like the flight is never over until the airplane is chocked, the build is never over until all the rivets are in. I got to the third to last rivet and started patting myself on the back too soon, and mismeasured drilling a rivet hole by 3/8". Not structural, and it will be invisible when the covering is on. But it was a reminder to stay humble.


I realized I was going to have to move the wings around the hangar so I've put wheels on the jigs.

And with the wings done it's moving and cleanup day.

But who can resist setting things up?

That's pretty close to the actual span and chord of the wing. 

Now there's room to build a fuselage....

Time to crack the books. That bag is some of the hardware to build the fuselage with.

The fuselage is a long build so we'll be working on it for the next year or so.

I'm a Right Winger??

To finish the wing you need to bend the trailing edge of the leading edge cuff to keep it from wearing on the fabric. Take 2 pieces of 1/2" x 13" x 3" wood, and bolt them together while sandwiching a washer in between. Remember my scrap wood bin?

This leaves a gap to insert the cuff into.

Now mark the center of each bay, and mark 1/2" back from the edge of the crimper.

Bend the trailing edge of the cuff in each bay (top and bottom) down about 30-45 degrees.

By the time I finished the crimper had gotten trimmed a bit to fit into some of the bays.

A couple of the bays on the bottom are still so tight you have no choice but to use a hand crimper.

Not quite as smooth though....

The top came out very nice, which is a good way to end this phase of the wing construction.

About that time a buddy stopped by and  gave me a head's up that TSA was wandering around the airport, looking for people who weren't wearing their SIDA badges and generally being TSA. (Two Strolling Around) It was a good time to call it a night, and as I watched the gate close behind me I saw them walking down the ramp by my hangar. Timing is everything.

Until it's time to cover, the right wing is done until next summer. For a few days I'll just have to lean that way.

Realistic Distractions

I love my hangar. It faces northeast so when the storms come in and the rain comes from the south I'm protected. Afterwards when it's post-frontal and the wind blows from the south I'm in the wind shadow. During the long days of summer I get gentle morning sunlight that reflects off the wood and gives the hangar a golden, mellow glow. Then when it gets hot in the afternoon I'm in the shade and can leave the doors open for ventilation and light without it being too hot.

The bad thing about my hangar is that I'm a few hangars down from the first airport entrance on a main drag, so it's not uncommon to have visitors. It's been interesting (and sometimes frustrating) to experience the range of personalities I've had stop by and visit on their way into the airport.

Some people feel absolutely no compulsion about walking right in, stepping on air hoses and electrical cords and picking up anything they see without a "May I?" Another builder at the airport warmed my heart when I was away from the hanger for a few minutes and he patiently waited outside until I returned, introduced himself and asked if he could come in and look around.The great majority are somewhere in between, and are a pleasure to meet.

It's a Catch-22. If I stopped each time someone stopped by I'd never get anything done, if I kept working I'd miss the opportunity to meet some great people, or get the reputation of being a grumpy misanthropic loner. (wait, that sounds familiar....) 

It really becomes a hazard when I'm interrupted in the middle of something, and I miss where I left off when I resume work.

The next day I took the template to the airport. The wing strut plate is mounted inside the leading edge wing cuff, and to mount the plate/template you're bent over working upside down and inside the cuff.

First I covered the area underneath so I didn't FOD the inside of the trailing edge cuff.

I was in the process of bolting it on when someone came by and we stopped to chat.

After mounting the template you draw an outline of where it touches the wing cuff, remove it, punch the outlines and drill.

Look at the kitty.

 

Now at the template

Now the kitty

Now back at the template.

Did you see what was wrong with the template?

I drilled the first 4 holes, took a look and wiggled the template. It was loose. I went "Aw shit...", spotted the loose bolt, tightened it down, repunched and redrilled.

A drill, a dremel, a pair of tin snips later....

Pretty close, time to clean it up with a couple small files.

The slot is not symmetrical, and the two holes that were drilled before the plate was correctly tightened are frustrating, but not critical so I can write them off as a Lesson Learned. I may be able to use them later when it comes time to run the landing light wire.

Leading it on

First, a couple people have asked how I have so much time to work on the SeaRey. Am I retired? Lazy? Living the life of a rich airline pilot?

The answer is None of the above. Back in March I had a mishap with my right knee, the same knee I had surgery on in 2005. At this point it's been determined that reopening the knee will cause more damage than acceptable, and we're on a long term physical therapy program to try to bring it back. I've talked things over with my physical therapist and he says that as long as I'm not kneeling on it or climbing ladders, working in the hangar is Ok and in some cases good for the knee. Glad I put in that wood floor.


So let's finish this wing.

Next was to drill the inter-bay holes for the cuff supports.

And work on the wingtip. The guys on the tech site sent me some images of how much should be cut off and I used that as a guide. Sure enough, when I trimmed it as far back as they suggested it fit fine.

And I filed it down for a smooth edge.

By this time the poor wing looks like it's a cleco porcupine.

45 minutes and a double handful of stainless steel rivets later...

Next will be to install the front strut mount plate. To do so you first make a template off the real one.

I used a bit of scrap wood I had in my scrap wood bin at home.

While my hangar is spacious, my home workshop is anything but.

With the underside exposed I was able to trim the lower rear wing cuff and install the wing/strut plate. It will get removed when it's time for covering next summer.

The leading edge wing cuff gets put in position and (gently) tightened down with ratchet straps on every other rib.

From the inside of the wing trace the outline of the ribs and cuff supports.

The cuff is taken off the wing, and each rib is marked at 0.5", 1.5" (ribs 5-8 only), 3", and 5.5". I freehand guesstimated the centerline of my ribs and only one came out less than perfect but next time I'll use a small, flexible, see-through ruler for better centerline alignment.

Note that the 3" mark should correspond to the wing cuff support angle and the 1.5" mark should correspond to the secondary wing cuff support angle. My cuffs were about .75" too far aft and I had to move them forward to correspond to the marks.

Flip the cuff over and mark the lower part at 0.5" and 1.5".

Drill and deburr the marks, then remount the cuff. Start at the front (top) of the wing, drill and cleco the ribs (and the cuff underneath) and work aft. I found it best to start on every other rib where they were held down with a strap...

Then come back and do the ribs in between.

And work your way aft. Before you drill where the cuff support is make sure it hasn't shifted position and is still under the holes you drilled in the cuff.

Then reverse and drill/cleco the bottom.

The cuff at the wingtip will get trimmed and fit next.