Tag: Wing Tip Installation

I spent the rest of the time after finishing the rear baggage panel starting the wiring for the wing tip. I believe I am going to need some terminal rings but I need to see what size, etc. The grounds I believe need to be attached to the exterior of the light as there are two bolts there I believe I can remove and put the rings underneath. I will have three in total and there are two bolts. I need to double check that though but the wires have been terminated at least. I need to label them all and then stick them in the harness. I will then need to window splice in the rear nav lights into the correct wires and put some shrink wrap on that. I put some sheathing on the wires going to the rear lights so that it could be protected from any chaffing. I need to glue in some tip tie mounts so I can affix the wire so they aren’t flying around but I still have enough of a service loop to pull it out some if I need it.

Before I left for the wiring class today I got the package from Aircraft Spruce in with all of the adel clamps. I installed nutplates and then got the wireloom mounted. I also got the tape off the wingtip lights and cleaned up the excess sealant. I might need to come back down the road to clean up the sealant better but I’ll do that when the wings are installed and I can better see the lights.

Man it was a long day but I really wanted to wrap up on the wings today before I packed up for the wiring class tomorrow. I talked with my EAA tech counselor and he had a nut plate jig that I could borrow. Man that thing was awesome! Made the work so much faster! I got all of the nut plates installed, installed the lights and mounted the wing tips. Of course I’m leaving out steps of dimpling, countersinking, etc. which was a huge amount of the work.

Now, when I say the wings are done, there is still some fine tweaking to do on them when I get them mounted and plus I still have to mount nut plates and mount the adel clips for the wiring for the pitot controller and I left the light support out on the right wing tip light so I’m going to have to take the wing tip off again and put that in before I can call that done. Plus I do still need to finish the wiring harnesses for the wing tips but I want to go through this class and do some research before I do that. All in good time

I got the lenses bonded today and went ahead and got the rear NAV lights installed. I’m missing some screws but beyond that they are ready.

I had spare time after dealing with weekend chores so I decided to spend some time getting the lenses prepped for bonding with the wing tips. Spent most of my time taping and then I scoured the external edges for the bonding process which I will start on Monday.