All day yesterday was spent carefully separating all of the wing ribs from their sheets. Those of you that have done this, know this can be a tedious job when ribs are die cut. Usually the die cutting doesn't penetrate completely through the wood, so if you try and force them out, you will end up with broken ribs. (This is why laser cutting is much more desirable and accurate.) Then came the tedious task of prepping the ribs making them uniform in shape and size. This is the life of an old school model builder!




Yesterday, I had mentioned about replacing a few ribs made from what I believed to be Luan. Since these ribs will be supporting the load of the wing tubes, I have decided to replace them with 1/8" 5 ply aircraft plywood. This should do a much better job in securing those wing tubes.



Each rib was traced over the top of the plywood. Time to cut them out!



Wing tubes referred on plans are made from aluminum. Tubes supplied in my kit looked more like electrical conduit along with birch dowel rods. I don't know why the discrepancy, but I think I can do better...



1/2" Carbon Fiber wing tubes (with sleeves)... a welcomed upgrade.