Weeks 48-51: Wing Wrap-up and Rear Fuselage

The left wing is finally complete! I finished filling all the rivets, and decided to install all the access covers so that they would not get lost or damaged. When doing this I noticed that one of the holes in the wing skin (for the pitot tube) was 3.6mm smaller than the other ones which did not allow the cover to fit properly. I checked with the factory and they confirmed a design issue when that access hole was added and instructed me to enlarge the hole to the correct size.

I was not confident I could keep the hole sufficiently round with a small file, so I ordered the largest diameter drum sander I could find on amazon. I got a kit that included a 3" diameter one. This worked perfectly to open up the hole without creating any noticeable inconsistencies. I used my calipers to mark 1.8mm around the inside of the existing hole, then evenly sanded until I reached the mark. When I was close I measured the hole on all sides to get it as round as possible. After reinstalling the backing plate, the cover now fits perfectly.

With the wing finished, I moved on to start the rear fuselage. The first step was prepping parts for the rib assemblies. I found a couple minor issues in this process. There was one part that had two holes that didn't line up correctly with the mating part. The outside two holes on the rib-6 bracket were about 1.2mm off. The instructions I got from the technical support team were to go to the larger rivet size since the alignment was off by more than 0.5mm.

The other minor issue I found was one rivet lined up with one on a previously attached part. I was able to just shorten that rivet to get it to install correctly.

I bigger issue I came across was a mislabeled (or possibly incorrectly bent) part. The two small corner ribs on the rib 3 assembly were identical instead of mirror images of each other. It was clear something was wrong when the parts did not fit up correctly when doing a test fit. I confirmed with technical support that one of them was incorrect and they are working on getting me a replacement.

That could limit my progress if I don't get the correct part soon. I plan to continue prepping parts and will continue with the assembly process when get the replacement.