Sindres RV-14A

Today I finished the landing light and lens installation, and will then declare the wings done. There are of course minor things remaining but they will be done after paint and after the wing are attached to the fuselage. Aero LED landing light. They works😊 I decided to let the left side til 3 degree downwards and slightly inboards towards the fuselage. So that will be the landing light. This is the wing root filter kit from Aircaft Speciality.  It requires a new dimpled hole for an adel clamp. The right side wing tip had a bulk that had to be fixed. For now the wingtips are sanded and partially primed to fix some flaws. The VOR/LOC/GS antenna is fixed partially with two screws and glue/RTV. I have one antenna in each wingtip. Nav and strobe light lens. It took a while to get it snug. The aileron line up nicely with the tip on both sides.

The last part of this section was to rivet the win skin to spar and ribs. This was very demanding work. But as usual, it's starts out very difficult and becomes easier as one get the hang on it. All was done solo😎 Total time for this section was 80 hours including skin preparation, aileron and flap fairing, pitot mast installation, and skin riveting.  Left side. It's shiny😁 Right side. To get better access I raised the whole wing cradle by approx. 50 cm (20 inch.) The start. Right side. I struggled a lot to set the rivets on the rear spar (top in the picture) in the beginning. So I decided to uncleco the J channel in the middle to get better access while doing the rear spar and the two rows on the rib. I used my Vividia inspection camera together with an iPad to check rivets. This was very handy. I made myself a little work table for the rivet gun, rivets etc. The outboard large skin is ready.

  Aileron is completed, and total time used ended in 42 hours. Nothing particular difficult other than avoiding twist. I'm happy with the result. Next now is to rivet on the lower wing skin.  

The right fuel tank did also pass the pressure test😊 So I went on and installed the left tank. Not special difficult, but I took it of after test fit to sand off the top inboard skin against the adjacent outboard leading edge. It was a bit tight.

I used a tube with water to get approx 1 psi of pressure (1 psi = 27 inches of water). At the first the pressure decreased slightly, but after taping the fuel filler cap and tightening the hose clamps it looked good. I let it stay overnight, and the column had only decreased 20 mm. But the atmospheric pressure had increased 2 hPa at the same time frame. So I considered it as a success😊 I also noticed that the pressure in the tank is very sensitive to temperature. As I started working in the shop and the temperature increased a bit, the water column climbed up some 15-20 mm quite fast.

  The left side fuel tank is now complete and closed with the tank baffle. I've not installed the tank baffle on the right tank, because I want to do leak test on the left one first. The tank sealant cures slowly, so to be sure I will wait a week before doing the pressure test. Hopefully I'm good - if not it might be challenging to fix eventual leaks.  Vans di just publish a video on how to build the fuel tanks. That was very helpful, and I followed the directions closely.  Resistance at empty. Resistance on full. I had to buy one more tool to flare aluminum vent lines. Rolo-Flare flaring tool 37° from Aircraft Spruce .

Approx. 1400 hours and 2 years of building has passed. Outboard leading edges Both outboard leading edges is now attached to the wings. Right side ready for rivets. Both done Fuel tanks (Section 18) The fuel tank is much like the outboard leading edge, but the riveting is much more complex as it will be sealed. For now I'm almost ready preparing all parts (deburring, fluting, countersinking and dimpling). The sealant will arrive form Vans Aircraft in a few days. Preparation of parts. Right tank clecoed together. A lot of holes to dimple on the skin😓