The first order of business today was to clean up the shop from yesterday’s battle with the landing gear. Today I was hoping to work on the bottom skins.

My buddies Jack and Matt were on hand to help. The first thing I needed to do was deburr and dimple the bottom skins where they attached to the flaps. Next I used RTV to secure the conduit to the ribs. This is important because overtime vibration and movement can cut through the conduit. I may go back once my new proseal arrives if the RTV looks like it might be weak. I probably could have been a little more prepared for this weekend.

Then we started riveting the bottom skins. The first step is to rivet the rear spar at the wing walk ribs. This requires a little dexterity. Vans advises that you work outward and forward in an L pattern. By far the worst are the rivets towards the rear spar on the wing walk doublers. 

We were only able to get about half of the left wing’s inner skin done. The going was very slow with all the awkward angles. Van’s says this can be done by one person. I sure don’t see how! 

In addition to cramping up a couple times, my arms are rather sore at the end of the day. I’ll need to drink more water next time.