With a few minutes available to me (quietly, kids are asleep), I decided to grab all the main wing ribs, get them organized, then devinyled and drill some of the extra holes allowed for wire routing and stuff. I have blatantly stolen this from my 2010 post.

I’m going to use tables to stay organized.

So I clearly need more stuff in the left wing than the right wing, but I decided to drill everything the same way.

As far as the ribs are concerned, there are two flavors of ribs with respect to the tooling holes as provided in the ribs from the factory. (They talk about flavor of ribs in the manual, too, but they are talking about part numbers and flange orientations, I am talking just about the tooling hole arrangements.)

There are 14 total ribs.

The first 11 ribs (counting from inboard to outboard) have two tooling holes in the front part of the web (just behind the main spar). The bottom hole is small, and the middle one is 7/16″. I decided (based on a lot of other builder’s sites, and the guidance from the Construction FAQs from Van’s that I’ll enlarge the bottom hole to 3/8″. (I’ll get to the other flavor of ribs in a little.)

Now, back to the construction FAQ. Van’s does let you drill a brand-spanking-new 3/4″ hole.

“An additional hole may be drilled in the lower 1/3 of the rib between the large lightening hole and the next one aft. This hole may be up to 3/4” diameter to accommodate our wiring conduit (DUCT NT 5/8-50) or Bushing SB750-10 (5/8” I.D.). The conduit is light and flexible. It’s .810 “ outside diameter means that when snapped into place, the corrugations hold it from slipping out. If using the conduit, a dab of fuel tank sealant or RTV should be put on the conduit at each rib to prevent the conduit from being cut through over time from vibrations.”

Instead of .75″ OD, I’m going to use the Black Snap-In Bushing .4375″ID x .625 “OD. That’s a 5/8″ hole instead of 3/4”.

I created a makeshift template. and started marking the center of the hole.

(Some people go crazy with this alignment. After reading a lot of other experiences, I reminded myself that this is a flexible conduit hole. They don’t have to be perfectly aligned. Although, after everything was all said and done, they were pretty darn aligned.) Don’t waste a lot of time here on a special tool. Cardboard worked great.

So, after punching twenty-six (I skipped the outboard rib for now) 5/8″ size holes in both the left and right wing ribs, I ended up with a pilot of holy ribs. Ha. (Wholey?)

Okay, now that I’ve drilled the maximum amount of approved holes in each of the ribs, let’s figure out where this stuff should go.

*The plans show Pitot tube installation after the 9th rib, or in the same place as the tiedown and aileron bellcrank. It’s going to be cramped in there, so I might move the installation one bay further out. (Stall warning goes just forward of the tiedown.)

Anyway, those are my plans for now, but I’m sure things might change. For one, I need to look more at the tiedown/pitot tube geometry. I think it will be too cluttered in the bellcrank bay, but any further outboard, and the pitot tube might be in the way of the tiedowns (low wing short airplane means tiedowns will be at a small angle.) I don’t want the tiedowns getting hung up in my expensive pitot tube.

So far, that was 1.5 hours on the ribs.

Later that day, I got back to the tiedowns and more rear spar work.

And just making sure I’ve gotten all these matchdrill…oops, forgot some.

Where are those tiedown pictures? Oh well. Let’s do some main spar work! I needed a 30 minute project. That’s about how tired I am.

Let’s get to countersinking the rivet attach holes for the K1000-06 nutplates for the access panels. There are 12 nutplates on each lower wing, each nutplate needs two AN426AD3-4 rivets.

After countersinking, I clecoed each nutplate into position, then riveted the other ear. Then, removed the cleco, insert the second rivet for each nuplate, squeezed, then moved on.

On the 23rd (of 24) nutplate(s). I heard the faint jingle of a nutplate hitting the floor.

Yup, missed one.

A quick (and painless) drill-out, then finished up all 48 rivets. Tomorrow, I’ll prep the access panels, then use their dimples to countersink the nutplate holes.

3.0 total today. 1.5 on the ribs, and 1.5 on the front and rear spars. 48 rivets set, one drilled out.