It really seems like I should be building the wing by now. But, I always seem to find things that need “done” before I start gluing. I also took my son up to camp, went on a trip to the coast for my anniversary, back up to the mountains and we spent a night at the Scout camp before bringing him back home... So, that all cut into my building time.
I went back to the stock wing ribs and glued the light ply “opening” from the landing gear blocks back into the ribs. This was mostly so I don’t get a flat spot when I put the sheeting onto the wing. It may also provide some strength. The next photo is the wing ribs all cleaned and stacked up, ready to make a wing – Not Yet.
I got working on the “new” ribs I needed to mount the retracts. I had used the plan profile to “estimate” how they would fit. However, with a double-tapered wing, there is a BIG change in spacing by the time you get out to where the retracts will be mounted. So, I took my “cleaned up” ribs and started drawing out where the Robart 615’s would fit best, get the wheel into the wing and still reach the ground. It only took a couple of tries to get everything looking good. I cut a template out of medium weight cardboard and traced out new ribs. Using light ply, I made one new 2/3 rib that will fit between two existing ribs and match the width of the mounted retracts. I cut the “sides” out of light ply that will double the existing ribs (and the new 2/3 rib) and extend down along side the retract gear hardwood mounting rails. They are measured so the outboard doubler will stick down about 1/8 inch lower than the inboard to make up for the wing dihedral. I had to estimate the wing dihedral from the center brace, because no exact number is given in the instructions or marked on the plans.
The landing gear mounting blocks will be glued “on top” of shorter 3/16-inch plywood ribs that are laminated inside the light ply doublers. I also cut some 3/32 balsa doublers to go outside the plywood wing ribs to give me a little more gluing surface for the sheeting. The next photo shows all the stuff I’m going to pile into the wing in order to mount the retracts. It is probably way over-engineered [laugh]. The review article just installed ¼-inch ply ribs and top rails for the retracts. I may cut down one “layer” of the whole thing and just go with the light ply “doubler” and the 3/16 plywood base.. I’ll look at the plans again before I start gluing...
I figured I was now ready to start building a wing – Again, NOPE...
I spent Sunday evening going over the plans and “routing” wires, pushrods and air hoses. After that I marked all the ribs with holes that need to be cut for the “junk” hanging on the wing… Man, take a simple wing that just has ailerons and put retracts, ailerons, flaps and bombs on the thing and it becomes a MESS [laugh]. The last photo shows all the ribs where I have to cut and drill holes BEFORE I start assembling the wing. It is a lot easier to drill the holes now, then after everything is together
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