Assembly Of The RV-12’s Left Wing Begins

Construction of the RV-12’s left wing began late this afternoon. Just to make sure the easy seems confusing, and to keep one on their toes, in good form Van’s assembly instructions call for constructing the LEFT wing using almost entirely RIGHT ribs except for two. After a little head scratching and looking ahead in the plans to verify the right wing is constructed using all left ribs except for two right ribs, assembly began.

Assembly of the left wing begins with the plans calling for the W-1210 aft ribs to be riveted onto the left spar first. The ribs are to be riveted onto the spar using LP4-3 pop rivets.  However, since access is good for using the pneumatic squeezer, I’ve once again elected to use solid rivets to attach the ribs to the rib clips instead of using LP4-3 pop rivets. By using a rivet gauge, it was determined the proper size of solid rivet for riveting the W-1210 ribs onto the rib clips would be AN470AD4-4 rivets.

                               The first W-1210-R wing rib clecoed onto the left wing spar and ready for riveting.

About to set the first of six AN470AD4-4 rivets which will attach a W-1210-R rib onto the left spar’s outboard rib clip.

No sooner than the second rivet was set in the first rib and I was called off the project to put on a Molly Maid hat and help out with sprucing things up for unexpected out of town company. Once Molly Maid duties were completed, RV-12 wing assembly resumed and had enough time to rivet the first three W-1210-R outboard ribs onto the left spar.

                                                              Three ribs down … twenty four more to go.