Even though my 3 car garage is pretty big, there is never enough room to store all the parts needed for this project...before they are finished...and then once they are complete. I put the two spars for the right wing along with the horizontal stabilizer on the tracks for one of the garage doors. (No, the door doesn't go back that far when it is open).

All three panels in place...for the moment. A few holes have been drilled and clecos placed. One of the things you have to get used to when building one of these things is that you take 2 steps forward and 1 step back (or was it 3 steps back). I now have to take this all apart in order to file about 1/16 of an inch off the leading edge skin so that the skins mate in a clean flush fashion.

Whirrrrrrrrrr....it sound so good. Notice the strategic use of masking tape to help hold things in place. This was actually done on 12/11/05.

Having good help is the secret to any great accomplishment. Zach is pressed back into action. He likes the high speed whirr of the air drill.

Zach is making fine adjustments to the placement of the last of the three aluminum skins on the upper surface of the wing.

These pieces of scrap metal help hold in place temporarily...

Ok...I think it's finally as true and straight as I can make it...so the first skin is carefully positioned and attached with a few clecos.

Another view of the Swett method for eliminating twist. If there is some twist in the wings, the airplane may have a tendency to turn to the right or left. Aileron trim can balance this out, but I would like to make this as straight as I can from the get go.

Before putting the aluminum skins on the wings, the frame has to be perfectly square. The spars (the green things at the front and back of the wing) have to be parallel and there can be no twist in the spars. Both ends have to be perfectly vertical. I probably spent the better part of a week trying to get everything straight. Here, I am using a digtal level to see if the bottom spar is level at all points. In the back, I have attached some waits to straighten out a little twist. The tape measure attached to the bottom spar assures that each rib is at the right place as measured from the center of the airplane (called butt length).

It took the better part of the weekend just to drill all the holes and put the clecos in. The leading edge looks pretty straight.

Well that looked good, but you have to take it all apart after the preliminary fitting and make sure there are no loose bits of metal under the skin that might make it not fit perfectly. It's kind of like the tailor who marks up your suit in the store...hopefully not sticking you with too many pins...then takes it off to have all the alterations done. Now I have put it back on and started to drill all the final holes. If it isn't on right....you are going to have to live with it, because there is no turning back.

And the inboard skin.

Here's the center skin.