Wing leading edges and Tanks
I have been very busy working on the leading edge and tank structures. Tank z-bracket drilling and leading edge - tank joint fitting was via the “Dan Checkoway Method”. It was a bit of work but I think it will be worth it. I am planning on not priming the insides of the skins, so I’m going to great lengths to keep from scratching them during construction. To that end, I put a very thin piece of scotch tape on the nose ribs during initial assembly. That worked great. Everything was pretty straight forward so far. The only thing that is bothering me is a very small amount of leading edge skin dents from the nose ribs. I think I’m going to just accept it and move on unless I can dig up some other suggestions. I checked all of the ribs and they look totally fine (flanges are square and holes are straight and radius is smooth).
So, here is where I’m at. Both of the leading edges have been fully matched drilled and disassembled. Tanya is in the process of removing blue plastic from the outside (inside already done before assembly). Both tanks have been fully match drilled, including filler flange, drain flange, z-brackets, leading edge joint strip, and rear baffle skin holes machine countersunk. Now I’m starting to work on interior plumbing and root rib bracket fabrication. When that is done, we’ll (hopefully Tanya will help) deburr and dimple all rivet holes in all of these parts.
