Pitts S1-SS

I finally finished the spar caps on the underside of the wing, and left them to dry. I then started on drilling the holes for the drag wire blocks. I still have the tool I made for the lower wings, so got that out, and had to call Simon, my middle child, to come and help hold it in place for drilling. It was nice having someone else to work with, and he snapped some rare pics of me along the way.

I used an elbow joint on the my drill to avoid the ribs when drilling, but found the drill jig awkward. After the first few, I actually just decided to eyeball the hole direction, and got Simon to watch that the drill stayed level whilst drilling, and went for it. It came out just fine, in fact, I found it quite easy. Maybe I am just lucky, but I know of others who eyeball these holes and get it perfect. Heck, I’ve even heard of eyeballing the I-strut holes – but that’s too risky for me

I made one or two rushed notches in the rib sticks for clearance, and in retrospect should have been more careful, as a few of them are unnecessary. Not a biggie, I’ll just re-glue in new replacement ticks where required.

I managed to get all four wire bays complete, and then hunted around for the special custom washers I had made, only to find that I have used them on my fuel tank straps, so I went back to the standard Raven washers, and will try them. They are a little too big still ()much check with Rob if he has changed them) but I may get some laser cut for myself later.

Time taken: 2.5 hours. Total time: 1080 hours.

With the wing turned over, it was time to make and glue on the underneath splice box plates. This time, instead of sticking them down with the intention of sanding them down, I decided to sand and flatten the splice box a little, so the plywood can be glued down as is without much sanding. Sanding the area gave me a good opportunity to inspect the glue line quality, and I was pretty satisfied.

I then cut out the plywood doubler plates, and glued them down onto the splice areas. I also used the remaining glue to start gluing on the plethora of underneath spar caps. Will finish those next time; at least the corner blocks are done!

Time taken: 2.5 hours. Total time: 1077.5 hours.

Completed the spar caps on the left wing today. I used extra length caps on the tip bays to support the plywood skin. I also glued the brace sticks that run in the bays outside the drag wire bays, and finally my wife helped me flip the wing over onto the other side so I can tackle the caps on them. I was quite amazed how light the entire wing is – we were bracing ourselves for the weight, and it literally popped into the air off the spar racks, surprising us both.

Raven use a rib nose doubler up front in the center section to provide a good base of the center section plywood, so I cut out two extra nose pieces using the Raven ones as a former. Not exactly sure which side they go on, but will check with Raven and glue them on.

Time taken: 3 hours. Total time: 1075 hours.

Moved over to the left side of the upper wing and started on the corner blocks and spar caps. Endless job, but I got them all glued down eventually. Took ages, and I’m not looking forward to flipping the wing over and doing the caps on the other side, but that is probably next. Unless I get distracted into doing the wire holes

No pictures. Big hailstorm outside, and found a new leak in my shed – argh.

Time taken: 3 hours. Total time: 1072 hours.

Happy with my center splice cover, and after waiting some 6 hours for the glue to dry enough in other areas, I then tackled the gluing of the cover onto the splice section. I did both front and back, and was pretty happy with the outcome. I will file and trim some parts of it when dry, but it now provides a nice flat contour onto which to put the plywood skins over the smoke tank. I’ll need to turn the wing over and do the underside at a later stage.

I finished up by gluing some of the spar caps onto the right forward spar, and brought out the Raven brace wires to check that they are all the right length.

PS – I love West System Epoxy – continues to amaze me.

Time taken: 2 hours. Total time: 1069 hours.