Step 5.0 Wings arrive

I've spent the last two months working on house projects in my spare time instead of the airplane. Hopefully, with my schedule clear, I'll be able to devote more time to the airplane going forward. So although I've been very busy, not much progress was made on this project.  To get an idea what I have been up against, here is a partial list of house projects completed:

1. Paint main room interior vaulted ceiling and one wall.
2. Repaint / recondition 20' of interior track lighting.
3. Build a 3' high, 40' long retaining wall with cinder block and then face with cultured stone.
4. Replace 6 sheets of siding on back side of house.
5. Replace 2 windows.
6. Replace 70' of barge rafters, facia board and 1x3 trim.
7. Repaint entire house exterior.
8. Take 6 loads of leaves and branches to the dump.
9. Install an evaporative cooler in shop.

Whew, I'm exhausted!  Thank goodness I can now get back to the airplane project -- it's so much easier.

The wing kit arrived via Fed-Ex freight in good condition, and although I had not yet completed the empenage tips my curiosity was piqued, but I was determined to complete the tips before opening the shipping crates.

Alas, one really can't overestimate the difficulty of ignoring couple of wood crates on the shop floor.  So after a couple of hours my curiosity was overwhelming, and out came the crow bar and hammer.

My first impression is that there is a lot of paper in there...

Slowly, we unwrap the parts and then Carol goes to work on the inventory over the next couple of days. Yep, all the parts are in there.

The next order of business is to construct the wing stands.  I am going to construct both wings at the same time (In theory, this allows one to save time) so I will need to build two stands.  The stands hold the main spars during assembly allowing access to either side for attaching the ribs and skins. I wanted the stands to be adjustable for leveling and be mobile.

Fortunately for me, I was able to enlist the help of my friend Chuck to work on the stands while I would  continue on with the empenage tips and my house projects. Below, Chuck cuts out the adjustable feet from some of the scrap plywood using a 2-1/2" hole saw. The feet adjust on carriage bolts through the plywood feet and tee-nuts in the base.

The stands have rubber feet attached to the bottom of the plywood feet and it gives structure a wonderfully solid feel with out any tendency to slip on the floor. But for mobility, I can set the stands on Harbor freight 3 wheel dollies at each corner. Chuck did almost all of the work on the stands and they came out beautifully.

In the next posting the actual work on the wings will commence with the attachment of nut plates to the main wing spars. Stay tuned!