Happy New year!

A quick glance at my countdown timer to the right of this column tells a scary tale of how little time I have to get this plane done.

Originally designed as a motivator, I haven't really been paying attention to it.  Now with just over 400 days to go I really have to get moving.

After battling with a broken snow-blower belt on New Years Day, I managed to get over to the shop for a it of building therapy.

A couple of quick photos of what I got done on the 701 wing repair - getting so close to moving it into storage and starting assembly on parts that I've made for my plane.

All 5 slat support complete and riveted in place. The alignment jig did an excellent job of making these perfectly straight

I used the rivet space template to layout the rivet holes for the inboard trailing edge - followed by centre punching them prior to drilling

Finger clamps spaced between every couple of rivetsdo an excellent job of holding the kins temporarily together for drilling - I backed the edge with wood beneath to prevent creasing the skin with the downward pressure of the drill

Holes drilled and clecoed, awaiting deburring - outboard wing tip trailing edge will be done the same way

The trailing edge of the wing is where the top and bottom 0.016 skins meet. On the 701, squeeze rivets are used to draw them closed. The rivets are very small!

I was going to practice with the rivet squeezer to find the perfect settings. These scrap pieces would be my practice template for proofing the right settings

Unfortunately, Ron was gone for the night and I couldn't find the right squeezer anvil head for these rivets, so it will have to wait until I can ask them.  It's probably right under my nose, but rather than rush when I was tired tired it can wait until next time.

Going to order some more aluminum this week.  I'll post more to my blog about that next time.

Happy New Year everyone, thanks for reading!