Zodie


Woops again. Don't ya just hate it when you don't read the instructions. Well this is the flap hinge. Notice that I marked and cut holes in both sides. Also notice the note that says not to do this. I figured this out while looking at the bottom skin and realized that the holes are located off of the skins not the other way. Oh well, ordered another hinge from ZAC. I will pull this apart and use the flap side on the appropriate flap and will put the new half with the skins. Live and learn

Ok on to the top skin. I almost started with the bottom. But after my flap episode decided to follow the plans. This is good since there is a lot of work to be done on the bottom. I spent a lot of time making sure that the table was level and there was no twist.

Located the holes on the middle and worked my way out

All drilled and clecoed. Turned it up

Removed the clecos from the outside and moved them to the inside. This way it won't deform the skins. Learned the hard way. Don't set the assembled structure on the clecos when turning something over. Don't look too close to the stab. Good news, my holes ended up centered on the ribs!

Turned it over and lined up the bottom. Again I really took some time to make sure it was all level. Used this handy gage to check for twist on the inboard.

And the outboard. Close enough

Good news. Got the new hinge from ZAC Bad news. UPS did a number on it, Good news. ZAC sent a new one right away. Got it 3 days after I gave them a call. And it fits great!





Cut the access hole for the Aileron Bell crank

Tie downs

Pitot

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Big oops.
First, I was rushing. I was thinking after I get done with this I need to clean up the shop. Should have cleaned it first. What I did. After I clecoed the Nose ribs and started to fit the nose skin, I felt the wing was at a difficult position. I figured it was all clecoed so I moved the wing. I spent quite a bit of time making sure that I had the nose skin located correctly. Spent about an hour fitting, taping, and measuring. It was perfect. I started to drill skins to the lower spar cap. I drilled at each of the ribs. I then located the holes in the skin with respect to the ribs. I realized that ribs were not lining up. Moving the wing caused it to shift and when I drilled the holes they were off about 5 mm. WHAT A BUMMER. Ok step away from the drill. I did clean up the shop. But it was time to do something else for a while.

Here you see the correct hole and where the pilot fell. Options: - Do I replace the lower spar cap? This would involve drilling out all of the rivets and reinstalling. This would be more destructive than helpful. - Do I add doublers? - Do I drive a solid rivet in the misdrilled holes? - Do I decrease the rivet spacing? Analysis: I talked to ZAC and they advised filling the holes and to decrease the rivet spacing. The lower spar cap is in tension. Which is good news according to some friends at work. The doublers really aren't necessary because the rear rib and the skins should be fine. The Approach: I will fill the holes with solid rivets, decrease the rivet pitch, and add a doubler to one spot where I don't have a rib. Lesson learned. Keep it in the jig till you are done and don't rush.

Ok here is the fix before priming. I sunk an 1/8" countersunk rivet with a rivet squeezer. Ground it flush and then reprimed.

Now that the holes in the spar cap are fixed I moved on. I also spent some time planning out the sequence better. Here is the finger screen access cover.

I followed the plans which called for the top to be 20 cm from the edge of the lower wing skin. This is close to the spar. You can see it in the top of the pic. This should be ok. The cover fits fine under the skin. However there is no room for a nut plate. But it will be secured between the skin and the spar. Should work fine.

Here is the cover clecoed in place.

Next I located the flaps. The plans call for the outboard edge to be 80 cm from the CL of the rivet line. Then there is a 5 cm gap to the aileron.

Cleaned up everything. Primed the nose skin and the lower skin

Riveted the nose ribs.

Lots of rivets pulled

I had one area where the edge distance didn't look good. So I added another row of rivets. I went a head and used the A4s as the additional rivets. I am not sure how these ended up tight on the edge margin. It wasn't really apparent till after I had drilled the first course.

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