Wing - Left Wing

2004-01-31 - Riveted left wing skeleton. (4.0 Hrs).

I started riveting the left wing skeleton. However, since I might want to install an angle of attack indicator (AOA), I decided to enlarge the tooling holes in the left ribs to the same diameter as the pitot tube holes.

Riveting the main ribs requires you to use the rivet gun, because the squeezer cannot get to the rivets on the main spar. Since I haven't set a rivet in several months, I was a little cautious. No need to worry. Most of the rivets came out good. I just had to turn-up the air a little.

About half way through the main spar, I noticed a rivet that I had missed, so I inserted a rivet, and proceeded to mangle it. Since my back was hurting, this was a good place to stop. I came back several hours later, and finished all of the rivets on the main spar.

Next, I started on the rear spar. After having such good luck with the rivet gun, I went ahead and drove the first rivet with the rivet gun. Oops! I forgot to turn down the air, and almost poked right through the rear spar. I went back to what I thought was my trusty squeezer.

After setting all of the upper rivets that I could reach with the squeezer, I turned the skeleton over and started on the lower rivets. I wish I had gone to bed. The bottom flange on the rear spar is pointed forward. Therefore, you have to hold the squeezer inside the wing. This makes it very hard to get a good grip on the squeezer and a good angle on the rivet. I bent every single rivet on the lower side of the rear spar. I'll never learn to quit when I start getting tired--time to go to bed.

I enlarged the front tooling hole for an extra pitot tube in case I install an AOA indicator.
You need to add some masking tape to protect against the bucking bar.
The first rivets set on the main spar look pretty good.
Notice the ends of the flange have bent up slightly. I tried to fix this by bending the ends of the flange before riveting. This seemed to help, but not always.