Stepping back to move forward

Ah... warm weather, and a man's thoughts turn to covering wings....

Previously I had spent an entire day fighting to get the nav and landing light wiring through some silicone tubing out to the wingtip and front spar/strut junction. I didn't like the stuff because it was so hard to get through the tubing, and if there was ever a problem there was no way I was going to be able to replace the wire without removing the covering.

Instead I replaced it with 3/4" bilge tubing, and zip tied it to the upper ribs. 

Not only was it easier to run the wire through the bilge tubing, I was able to run both sets of wire inside a single tube. Little bit of weight saved.

 

Hangar's getting crowded. Good to be building again, having the wings uncovered brings back memories. I've come a long way in my building skills. 

Another thing I picked up from Jim was that the wing LE sheeting would be held down by the covering, making the wrapover and screws wear points and unnecessary.

Excellent tool for trimming the sheeting, a sheet metal nibbler. Wish I had had this when I was cutting the slots for the LE/TE strut attach plates. 

I'm getting a little arthritis in my hands from years of computers, waiting tables, etc so I'm thinking about making my own stick grips. I've made some plaster molds to play with first. 

I found the finish of the trailing edge of the wingtips to be poor, with open gaps in the glass cloth. I did some work on it a couple years ago, and went back to do more this year. 

After which I talked about it with other builders. The tips are made from two separate halfs, then joined together. Only problem is the trailing edge is too small for someone to get a layer of glass/resin in to glass the top and bottom together. Instead expanding foam is squirted in, which is ok, but the foam continues to expand, sometimes gradually splitting the tip apart. So instead a 2" line of Polyfiber reinforcing tape will be ran all along the edge of the wingtip, then painted.



Finishing up, a look at the wire harness, almost complete. Note that zipties are not used, since those seemingly innocent plastic wraps can actually wear though the teflon coated wire, causing short circuits. Still on schedule for having the electronics delivered in mid-June.

Yellow things are heat-shrink tubing imprinted with the function of the wire.