February 23, 2008 - Left Wing & Wingtip

With the right wingtip completed, it's time to address the left.  Lynnette and I put the right wing back in the stand and put the left wing on the sawhorses.

Unlike the right wingtip, I had not done any work at all on the left.  So the first thing I had to do was attach the airleron and flap.
 
I clamped a long angle to the end rib, using the rib tooling holes to align it.  The purpose was to line up the airleron and flap.  I kept the aileron and flap in the correct position by using a stack of books. 
 
Before I could even trial-fit the wingtip, I had to trim away some of the top and bottom aft flange.  I used the Dremel tool with the heavy duty cutting disk for this. 
 
After cutting.  The notch I cut out on top and bottom is very visible.
 

Now I was able to trial fit the wingtip.  The next task was to determine how much of the wingtip flange I had to trim so that the wingtip would fit snuggly against the wing. 

I put the wingtip in the wing as far as it would go, then drew the red line pictured below.  I'm not going to cut on that line, but I now knew the distance I had to cut. 

 
I cranked up the Dremel tool again and trimed the top and bottom flanges, then sanded smooth and straight.
 

Now the wingtip fit nicely into the wing, with the wingtip tightly butted up against the wing skin. 

I made sure the wingtip trailing edge was level (vertically) with the aileron.  Then I started drilling with #40, starting forward and drilling alternately top and bottom, per the instructions.  The wing skin had pre-drilled holes so I could use it as a template to drill the wingtip.
 
About halfway done. 
 

All done.  It's amazing how secure the wingtip is with all the clecoes in. 

There's a good look at my stack of books holding up the aileron and flap in this image. 

Notice how the wingtip trailing edge is slightly aft of the elevator trailing edge.  I marked the wingtip with a Sharpie where the aileron meets it.
 
With the Dremel, I trimmed the wingtip inboard trailing edge so it will be even with the aileron and flap trailing edges. 
 
I still have to do this with the right wingtip.
 
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