Neutral Progress

Matt G has been a great help lately and we've gotten a little work done and moved backwards in a few ways too.  Late last year I got a full set of ribs in the mail which have come in very handy during this process of rebuilding this section of the wing.  I've used the old ribs to fit onto 53T's wing, tweak to the right profile, and then use them as a template for new ribs.  Matt and I were able to use my new router to make new ribs for the two that I broke a few weeks ago.

Last week I spent some time working on the rib that goes through the middle of the airbrake.  Long story short I ended up removing pretty much all of the "box" that surrounds the airbrake and one of the cross members that tie the spars together.  However last night we cut a new rib for that location.  We also started cutting the last rib but weren't happy with how it was going.  So, this weekend, I hope to build a router table like I should've done to begin with.

Also, after some more inspection I decided to remove the last 8 inches of skin on the leading edge as the false ribs were a bit undersize and the skin had become detached on the bottom of the wing.  I glopped a bunch of super-fil on those ribs so we can get them profiled to the right shape and then use those as templates for new ones.  So that little hold that started a few months ago has grown to basically replacing everything but the spars from the inboard edge of the airbrake to the inboard edge of the aileron.  4 feet.  I'm going to have to make another order of wood here pretty soon, might need a bigger sheet of plywood for the leading edge and will probably need more plywood for ribs.

In other news, I learned that a Cherokee II has been donated to the Antique Airplane Association in Blakesburg, IA. I'm looking forward to learning more about it and what their plans are for the glider.

Back to Work

Leah and I had a nice Christmas break which included plenty of traveling.  Didn't get out in the garage much last week but last weekend our friend Matt came down to visit.  He started a welcome crusade against clutter in the garage and by the time he left on Tuesday morning the place was totally cleaned and organized. Thanks Matt!

Can't remember if I put anything up here but Matt G and I (ok...it was me) managed to break the existing rib that goes through the middle of the airbrake area before Christmas.  Additionally, while walking around the garage on Sunday I managed to bump into the exposed ribs on the right wing and broke two.  One was a new false rib and the other was an original full size rib (which I wasn't planning on replacing)

Last night Matt G came over to help and we worked on further destruction to get the newly broken stuff removed.  With some careful chisel work we managed to get everything removed and preserve it all pretty well so hopefully we can use them for patterns for the new pieces.