Since I’m out of MEK and I didn’t get a chance to stop by the store on the way home, I decided to work on the new inboard leading edge rib I ordered for the right side. If you remember back on May 13, 2011, I discovered that by having the inboard face of the rib lined up with the edge of the leading edge skin, the drilled holes ended up being too close to the web of the rib. (See this picture specifically.)
Anyway, let’s see if we can’t get a better alignment.
First thing, I kinda-sorta set the rib in place and just made some small marks where the holes would be. This is so I could pull the rib back out and flute it appropriately before drilling.
Marks made.
After edge-finishing and fluting, I stuck the rib back in place where I wanted it, then started matchdrilling.
A few notes:
- Since the leading edge skin was dimpled, I didn’t include the W-423 (I just made that part number up) join plate. The rib and skin fit was secure enough that it’ll work out.
- I ended up lining up the outboard face of the rib web with the skin edge (make sense?). Said another way, the rib sticks out a little further than the skin.
- If it happens to be May 13, 2011 and you discover that your rib drilling on one wing didn’t work out, AND you did both wings the same way, you should probably order both inboard ribs again, instead of waiting until June 17, 2011 (TODAY!) to check the left wing. Doh! I messed that one up too. Now I’ll have another one of these.
Drilled.
Finally, I clecoed the leading edge on the wing (I don’t know why you can’t see any clecos here), made sure my x’s from earlier still lined up over the tiedown hole, and drilled a 3/8″ hole for the tiedown ring.
Drilled.
I still need to tidy it up a little, and probably go to 7/16″ instead of 3/8″ (the tiedown ring is 3/8″), but I’ll leave that for another day.
0.5 hour.
Andrew's RV-7 Build Log 