Right Wing: Covering: Patches

The exit rings, inspection rings and lexan strips were glued and riveted onto the right wing, respectively. Patches were glued over the rings. Following are pics of wing bottom. Some sweltering August nights were encountered, therefore, pardon the topless pics.

Right Wing: Covering

Both top and bottom panels are now installed on the right wing. Top panel went on first, here you can see glued edges around top LE and TE spars.

Next couple pics show thinned glue application to sheet metal surfaces which dissolves and wicks underlying glue into fabric weave.

Here is pre-tautened top fabric.

Next pics show glue application to areas to receive bottom fabric panel. Two coats of glue were applied.

Here I am applying thinned glue to fabric LE of bottom panel.

Final tautening of wing fabric to 350 degrees with an iron. Gotta love August in the UP, warm nights and no bugs; the rare occasion when you can let the garage doors fly open without risk of heat loss or blood loss. Now need to get the covering done so can begin painting before the snow flys!

Rotax 912 ULS Arrives

The 100 hp engine arrived last week and survived shipment from Austria to KS to MI. Amazing how the entire box weighed little more than 100 lbs. The light weight must be why the thing costs so dang much. Since I won't need it for quite awhile, I decided to hide the box in the basement where uniform temp and humidity. Boys haven't decided to square dance on it....yet...

Camoflaging appears to have worked.

Right Wing: Dynon Remote Compass

I fabricated a mount and installed the remote compass near the right wing tip above the inspection opening and mount for the lift reserve indicator. In following pics, you can see the previously fabricated LRI sheet metal spanner between the ribs with the hole opening for the LRI probe mounted to an inspection plate. For the compass mount, I riveted a double strip of aluminum sheet to two plastic clamps which were then attached to the 1" compression tube. Since the compass was not very stable mounted to just this location, I then made and riveted a sheet metal support to the other in-board side. The remote compass was then secured to an aluminum platform with bolts. This platform was then sandwiched between the supports on each side with a bolt and wingnut. As a result, adjustments in pitch angle can be made by rotating the compass/platform assembly, as the leading face of the compass must match the angle of the instrument on the panel.

At this location, the compass is away from any magnetic interference, such as ferrous metal and electrical currents.

Addendum: After talking with Dynon, I decided that I would modify the compass mount to rotate in the roll axis as well. The current horizontal installation will rotate later when the wings are attached and dihedral is built into the wings so that the tips bow upward. I wanted flexibility to rotate the compass to negate this and maintain true horizontal attitude.

Covering: Left Wing: Tape

The left wing is complete. Following are pics of the taping process. For the tape over the ribs, I decided to straight-line the tape from LE spar to TE spar at rib locations, rather than tape directly centered over each rib. Several of the ribs were not perfectly straight, so I thought this would enhance appearance. I first tacked the LE tape down with glue, let dry, then pulled tight and electrical taped at the TE spar. I marked edges of pinked taped with a pencil and then laid a bead of glue on the fabric in between. Finally, I laid the tape over the dried glue and applied thinned glue to the top of the tape and underlying glue.

A lot of effort was spent ironing down the pinked edges of the 2" and 4" tapes so that they would definitely lay adhered following painting and movement of the slipstream over the wing.

Here are completed pics of left wing. Next, I will need to fabricate a platform for a remote compass or magnetometer, which I will mount in the right wing prior to covering. This unit needs to be installed away from any ferrous material or electrical wiring (magnetic interference) and will serve to provide heading indication (among other things?) on a Dynon glass cockpit EFIS/EMS that I will purchase later. I will mount it adjacent to LRI mount/inspection plate inside the wing with the ability to rotate the unit in pitch/roll axes for future adjustment.

Covering: Left Wing: Patches

The exit rings/access rings are glued down, patched and ironed.

On to the taping....

Covering: Left Wing

After a late Saturday night in the garage, I finally got the left wing covered. First pics show the wing sheet metal roughed up with a scothbrite pad (to enhance glue adhesion) and then the entire wing bonding area cleaned with an acetone solvent. Masking tape was used as antichafe tape and applied to the structure where sharp areas occur. Two coats of U500 glue were applied to perimeter of wing and around under sides of spars, root rib and wing tip. Two thinned coats of U500 were applied to wing sheet metal to prevent "pinholing" following painting.

The fabric was than rolled over the top of the wing and glued down with thinned glue in beads around perimeter. The skin was then slightly tautened to remove wrinkles and skin was glued to sheet metal and to remaining areas on spars, rib and wing tip. Areas of the fabric had to be cutout to fit around ribs underneath. Tag ends of fabric underneath were trimmed off and ironed down.

The bottom panel went on next, first two coats of glue were applied to LE/TE spars. Same procedure went as before, except this time, numerous large protusions existed on bottom of wing such as strut attach plates. The skin was glued on right over these features and after tautening the fabric was sized and the openings were cut for the skin to pass over. I had trouble getting fabric to lay down flat on TE spar as a result.

Both sides were final tautened and complete. Next to the patches....