Day 6 - Starting on the wings      Hours today: 4      Hours so far: 45

Day 6 was taken up with lots of fiddling about, and only 4 hours in the workshop. I thought I would manage to get a full day in every day, but it's astounding the number of things that get in the way of plane building. Confidence is building slowly. I'm more inclined to tackle some of the bigger jobs, now that I have got an idea for what this is all about.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

First job is wings - there's a lot of work needing doing before covering. The ends of the ribs need trimming with a fine saw, then round off the corners to accept the aluminium trailing edge. Trial fit the edge to make sure of a good fit.

The trailing edge needs trimming to length, then holes drilled for rivetting later - the holes go into the middle of the rib, so draw a centre line before centrepunching and then drilling.

Preparing the flap and aileron hinges. This is a good example of where the time goes. First you need to remove the powdercoat on the inside surface. Then mark and centrepunch holes for rivets. Drill, then deburr the holes. There's 10 such hinges, each has 5 or 10 holes. This little job alone took about 3 hours.

Trial fitting of the flap hinges. Secure them with jubilee clips until you are absolutely sure they are in the right place. I'll come back to these later when the trailing edge has been fitted.

Another day when you look back and wonder what you did - it's becoming a familiar feeling! Next page