Darling Aircraft

Began stripping the paint on the wings. Nice to see the raw aluminum again! Shortly I'll be drilling the rivets out of the leading edge skin and the end ribs so the foam ribs can be sawed off of the spar. Much more complicated than it sounds!! 😲

I'll have to line bore with a hole saw the outboard ribs from the aileron bell crank so the I can pass a length of band saw blade through, then using fixed guides on both ends of the wing a friend and I will carefully saw down like a pair of coordinated lumberjacks to the spar caps.

Then a large pipe will be inserted all the way through the wing. A large mallet and a few strategic blows should fracture the small sections of un-sawed PVC foam rib remaining attached letting the D section with the majority of the ribs attached come off in one piece. The portions of the ribs left on the spar will be traced for re manufacturing then removed to expose the shear web and spars.

Once the new spar caps are in place the re-manufactured rib pieces will be bonded back onto the ribs in the D section and the whole D section then re-bonded to the spar and riveted back in place retaining the original wing geometry and rigging. "Theoretically"

This is all to give me access to beef up the spar caps for the increased weight and speed.

Have steel rudder and elevator balance weights finished machined and primed.

Elevator got some shop rash when the MDF of a 20lb hanging speaker enclosure gave up and fell. The corner of it gave a hard glancing blow and left a huge dent.

Removed the tip rib then slid the elevator over a long piece of steel bar stock in the vise and gave it a few strategic wacks with a hammer and BAM! It was 90% back in shape. Then a bunch of tiny taps here and there and a wee bit of filler it's back in service.