I had planned this weekend to test the fuel tank for leaks but discovered quite by chance that I need to do some more work on it. The left tank (and maybe the right one too) has a second fuel line hole, apparantly for a fuel return line. I had seen it but for some reason that is clearly foolish I had decided to just leave it with the plastic stopper inside. Clearly this has to be plugged with a proper plug. Unfortunately, on the website that I read this on, a couple of people had already sealed their wings without doing anything about it. I am so glad I caught it before I did the same. But nowhere in the guide or video does it say anything about this, there are definitely a lot of gotchas in this plane building business.<\/p>\n
Instead I decided to go “off plans” for the first time and install some l-angle stiffeners around the pitot tube. A fellow builder on the building website had suggested putting some l-angles around the pitot tube to add some strength to the skin in case (or rather, when) someone hits the tube with their head. <\/p>\n
I cut an l-angle into four pieces, pre-drilled some holes and then back drilled into the bottom skin in the wing.
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\nI tried hard to get the holes in the same place in each bracket so it will look nice on the outside but I am sure I didn’t do that great. My plane is not going to be a thing of beauty (except to me!). Drilled the holes to size 30, deburred, primed and riveted.
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\nHopefully next week, with the long weekend, I’ll get the tank tested and the top skin and nose skin riveted to the spar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had planned this weekend to test the fuel tank for leaks but discovered quite by chance that I need to do some more work on it. The left tank (and maybe the right one too) has a second fuel…<\/p>\n