12/28/04

Finished my Practice Kit - All of the stiffeners riveted to the skin. All rivets set by "back" riventing to this point.

12/28/04

Finished my Practice Kit - Just finished drilling the skin to the spar and clecoing all holes. I used cleco side grip clamps initially to hold the spar in place. Notice the bends in the skin top and bottom. The materials that came in the practice kit left a little to be desired. The bend in the trailing edge of the skin was also skewed...see how the skin and spar do not line up on the edges.

12/28/04

Finished my Practice Kit - Spar riveted to the skin and now it is ready for bending. Used the hand squeezer to rivet one side of the spar and the pneumatic squeezer to do the other side (just to get practice using both). The pneumatic squeezer rocks!! Get one if you can come up with the bucks.

12/28/04

Finished my Practice Kit - Top edge already bent and bottom edge duct taped to the broom stick in preparation for bending.

12/28/04

Finished my Practice Kit - Finished product. As you can see the leading edge is not riveted. This is because the skin was not long enough to overlap after the bending process. I built it exactly as specified in the drawings. It was to measure 12" from the trailing edge to the back edge of the spar...right on the money. Leading edge would have been done using blind or "pop" rivets. Although the practice kit materials could have been a little better, it was definitely worth doing...I learned a hell of a lot. I would recommend any new builder get a practice kit either from GBI or Van's. I am not sure if both kits are the same.