Riveting bottom skins on right Wing. Entire job completed without help by careful planning and long arms.
Plan of attack for single-handed riveting of bottom skins. Rivet inboard skin first, clecoing as you go. Some rivets will require a long arm, long bucking bar, or both.
To Install the AOA air line for the Dynon EFIS, I mounted a Gretz Aero pitot base. I plan on running two aluminum or plastic tubes through snap bushings on the forward part of the main ribs. One hole is already punched to 7/16", and I installed snap bushings and ran one aluminum tube. The second hole needs to be enlarge to 3/8" or 7/16" to allow snap bushings. After much puzzling, I purchased a 3/8" hex-drive drill bit (unfortunately, a 7/16" was not available), and a 12" hex extension bit. I already had a 6" extension, but it would have been better to have two of the 12" hex extensions.
The collar on the business end of the hex extension had to be
ground down in diameter from 0.392" to 0.375" so it
would fit through the 3/8" drill holes. If I had used
a 7/16" drill, this would not have been necessary.
The inboard ribs I drilled as shown in the photo above.
The hex 3/8" drill bit can be fit into a 1/4" jacobs chuck on my small palm drill, thus allowing me to drill the outboard ribs by reaching in as shown in the above photo. I'm glad I didn't install the outboard skin yet. The bracket on the right is for the Gretz pitot mount.
In order to reach the ribs that are underneath the inboard skin, which I had already riveted in place, I assembled my drill bit, 12" extension and 6" extensions in place between the ribs, then chucked my drill onto the extension shaft. After drilling, I reached in and dissassembled the extensions, unchucked the drill and removed everything. This would have been a lot easier if the inboard skin had not been riveted in place yet, or if I had purchased a second 12" hex extension, because the 6" extension used set screws to hold the second extension shaft in place.
Creativair wingtip landing light installation rough-in. At this point I stopped, because I want to install the Creativair position lights as well.
Cut-away for the fiberglass. RV-9A wingtip is a different shape than the RV-7, so the instructions aren't quite right.
Reddish Stall warner. To fit the -9A wing, I had to fabricate an aluminum plate, formed it to shape with my seaming pliers, and used tank sealant around the edges to glue it to the stainless flange.
Distances to center of vane cut-out (approximate):
From outboard edge of wing skin: 21"
From aft edge of leading edge skin (top) 16-1/4"
From aft edge of leading edge skin (btm) 14-3/4"
I have no idea if these are correct for the -9A installation, they are educated guesses, so caveat emptor!
The tank sealant was left to set up for about a day, then I mounted everything and let it harden to get the final shape for the aluminum plate. Small holes in the sealant allow water to drain out (picture shows assembly upside down).
Wing grounding bolt. Followed recommendations in AC 43.13-1B. Drilled hole at extreme outboard end of spar (Van's ok'd this), Mounted the grounding wires and coated everything with dielectric grease, just to be safe. It's necessary to remove the anodization of the spar to ensure good electrical contact. The ground wire for the pitot heat is even run from the center of the wing to the grounding lug at the tip, just to make everything simple.
I had some significant oil-canning on the bottom outboard wing
skin of the right wing. After consultation with Van's, I
fabricated a stiffener to reduce the problem.
I fabricated the stiffener out of left over j-channel, and match drilled and dimpled. The oil-canning is pretty obvious in this photo.
I chose to put it about 1-1/2" back from access opening. Most of the rivets can be squeezed with a pneumatic squeezer. Test fit with clecoes shows that the oil canning is distributed to the adjacent wing bays, and should not be a problem.
The aileron sits above the aft part of the wingtip by about 1/8-1/4". The aileron is designed to be offset into the airflow for more control authority.
The bottom offset is a bit more.
It turns out that the problems with the wingtip fit were caused by a badly fitting fiberglas moulding. The left wing fit great, and a replacement right wingtip was better... but it still needed coaxing to get it into alignment. This photo shows the 1-1/2" twist in the fairing. Not good!
Right wingtip wiring, showing connectors.
Left wingtip VOR antenna.
Left fuselage at wing attach showing various connection points and pass-throughs.