Saturday, June 04, 2011

Lift Strut, Exit Fairing Fit-up

I trimmed and match drilled the plastic flap and aileron exit fairings to the bottom of the wings and also installed all of the fittings and hardware to the aluminum front and rear lift struts.  The struts are now ready to support the wings when they are installed.







Wings: Root Rib Modification

The aft flexible fuel line from the fuel tank on each wing needs to run under a wing structural member and then over the bottom root rib (and then into the cockpit).  Currently, there is not enough clearance to accomplish this without pinching the fuel line.  Ran's suggestion to work around this situation is that the root rib be pinched to obtain sufficient clearance.  Not the most elegant solution, but better then routing line over structural member which would introduce a high-point in the fuel line and not allow complete draining of fuel tank. 

Using a pair of channel locks and aluminum angle (the latter to distribute pressure on outer side of rib), I pinched the rib until 3/8" fuel line would fit unencumbered.