Measuring wing twist

Everything was ready to put on the outer wings and measure the twist. I can see that without rivets, the inner wing can be twisted a little bit. I measure the leading edge and the trailing edge with a reference to the laser level light. If the difference is the same for both wings, it should be straight. It looks fairly straight, but if I twist it, it will stain in a new position, about 3-5 mm off. This is with clecos on the trailing edge. Two holes on the main rib, one towards the fuselage and one towards the outer wing, will hold the twist. Just a bit fiddling and it will hopefully be straight. It is very straight, but I will try to do it as good as possible, and hold it in place with support fixture.

Rubbing and waxing

The paint on the wing leading edge became a bit too "orange skin" too my likings, so I decided to sand and polish them. I first wet sanded them in two runs with 1000 sand paper. Then I used this rubbing compound and finally polished with yacht polishing, first creamy wax, then hard wax.

The paint I used, Power Coat 3 in 1, is a modified polyester, basically some kind of gelcoat, so using yacht polish seemed natural. Waxing also makes it 10 times easier to wash.

This is the raw paint:

Then after one and two runs of 1000 sand paper.

1000 sand paper makes it completely smooth. Then rubbing makes it even smoother. Finally the wax makes the surface hard and water repellent.

A bit work, but the result is 100% hydraulically smooth finish that should help making the aircraft go fast :-)

Painting

Finished polishing the wings and started painting them. Finished with the gray, and continued with orange. Started painting the trim on the fuselage also,

Riveted wing skin, wing tip

Finished riveting on the wing skins. The wing tips will be removable, using the Airward kit.

inner wing rib brackets

Drilled all the holes for the inner wing ribs.

Rear wing spar, mid wing, polysiloxane paint, engine

Riveted and bolted on the rear wing spar

Then started fluting and deburring and straightening up the ribs for the mid wing section.

I also fetched the polysiloxane test I have had laying on the veranda. It has been there two winters and one summer now, almost 1 1/2 year. There are some superficial signs of corrosion on the non-painted part, but nothing worth mentioning. The polysiloxane painted part looks as if it was painted yesterday.

I can only conclude that the 6061 will last for ever, and the polysiloxane paint will last even longer. Too bad it is impossible to achieve a nice finish.

Sonex found a new rod that weighs 1.5 gram more than mine, leaving me some degree of trimming in case of variations in the scales. They sent it right away, free of charge. Excellent service from Sonex I have to admit. But, this has given me some second thoughts about the engine and the choices done on it.