Wing Walk Doublers   August 21st, 2007

The wing skins need some reinforcement near where they attach to the fuselage, as this is where you step to get in the plane. The reinforcement is just another sheet of aluminum under the top wing skin. The piece from Van’s is much larger than needed, and not prepunched.

So, after match drilling the top skin, I took it off and put it on the table. After marking the final length, I used a hacksaw to make the first rough cut. It would sure be nice to have a bandsaw!

The final cut was made with tin snips. I used some masking tape to cover part of the snips, so as not to scratch the aluminum.

After cutting to the right size, I placed the doubler under the wing skin, and just match drilled it, clecoing the holes to a piece of MDF to make sure nothing moved.

Here’s the obligatory picture to show I’m actually doing all this stuff myself.

Finally, the doubler and skin, ready to be clecoed back on the skeleton.

Posted in Doubler, Wing Walk, Wings | Comments Closed