June 30, 2020
Another long day today, but progress is being made. I started by finishing installing the nut plates for the flap motor side covers so that’s done for now.
Since the next step in the instructions is to mount the wings and tail, I decided to go back through the drawings starting from number 1. I found a lot of stuff in the drawings that isn’t mentioned in the instructions, so I’m really happy I did this.
I fabricated up the aileron stops as shown in the drawing so they’re ready to be installed once the ailerons get final rigged. For now, they’ll sit on the shelf.
I installed plastic snap bushings everywhere I could find on the drawings. I also drilled the 706, 707, and 708 bulkheads for the wire passthroughs. Since I’m doing electric elevator trim I didn’t need the cable holes and decided to just keep all the wire passthroughs on the same side as the manual cable trim.
Next the main spar cover panels on both sides went in. These sit over the spar and under to top longeron braces, but the guys that did the quick build kit left less than zero room between these 2 parts. After an hour with the dremel and sand paper I was able to cut the longeron braces back enough without damaging the anodized spar sections. What would have taken seconds on a bench grinder prior to installation took forever and put critical components in danger of being damaged after install. The further I get in the build, the more I understand the appeal of a slow build kit. I don’t regret the time lost, but undoing work someone else did is getting tiring.
0 Clearance 
Zoomed Out- Spar & Longerons
The quick build kit left out a bunch of rivets in the 705 bulkhead for the tip up canopy, but since I’m installing a slider I went ahead and put rivets in all those holes. There’s 4 holes on each side that I couldn’t drill up to size without a right angle drill, so I’ll come back to those in a few weeks once I get a right angle drill on order.
I also made up a 2nd W-730 aileron jig to hold everything in the faired position inside the wings. Just makes sense to have one installed in both wings until final assembly.
A lot of random things were accomplished, but now its time for a vacation….
-Paul
(Total Build Time: 385.6 hrs)