This is a continuation (See the previous post for Day Three)

Day #4: Picking up from the previous day’s work, Barry continued with the fuel tank installation. First he cut strips of cork and then he stuck them wherever needed all around the tank. The purpose of the cork is to secure the tank snugly in its place, ensuring it cannot come into contact with any sharp edges.

Cork strips are stuck in place to protect the tank sides, but also on the top and bottom:

With the tank in position, Barry checks that the hole in the bottom wing skin (for quick-drain) is properly lined up with the now well-padded tank. A little filing with a half-round file ensures that the clearance is even all around.

Meanwhile, Lon and Val (a pharmacist and a psychiatric nurse), continue working on the second wing.  They first install all the nose ribs with the previously-prepared leading-edge slat brackets, then they build-up the rear wing spar with the required doublers. Progress is impressive!

With the wing skeleton ready, they quickly move on to the skins. Three sizes of drill bits have been used throughout the assembly work thus far (#20, 30 and 40). By having enough drills available, there is no need to switch-out the drill bits when going from one size to the other – another advantage of starting a kit project at the factory…

As with the first wing, the flaperon horns are installed, then the wing-root section. Lessons learned along the way: how to drill out and replace a rivet; how to take-out a kink from an aluminum skin…  :o/

With the fuel tank now in place, Barry positions a reinforcement bracket on the lower wing, next to the strut attachment point. Using information from the photo-assembly guide as well as from the drawings, the parts and their location are easily identifiable.  Here (below), Barry uses a hole-finding tool for the first time.

Val confided today that this “kick-start” program was one of the main reasons he chose to build the STOL CH 750. “I knew that to get started on our kitplane project, we would greatly benefit from a program like this; no other metal kit manufacturer offered a workshop experience like this, so we went with the CH 750 (which we liked anyways)”! With one day left, the trio now plans to finish the second wing, build the rudder, and load-up the entire airframe kit for the trip home…

Click here for last day details of this program.