Riveted Flap Brace and Devinyled wing skins - 3.5 hours

I riveted the flap brace onto the wings as I was on a roll with bucking AD4 rivets. Went quite quickly but getting the bucking bar into the root rib area was a bit tricky. I think i am going to enjoy riveting the wing skins....not.
 
Next I de-vinyled the wing skins. A time consuming process, but put on Netflix and the time passes easier.

Finished ground school and wrote the written exam

Well, at the beginning of July I finally finished ground school and all that I needed to do was start studying for the final exam. Part of the ground school program is that you must write a minimum of three (3) practice exams. So, I studied for a week or so and one Sunday I attempted the first exam. A three hour exam...I scored about 85%. Since there was lots of time left in the day, and feeling like a had a good handle on the exam I decided to write the second. I scored better...into the low 90's I believe. I felt like I had a good handle on the information, however there where many items that I was not 100% on like types of Fog and as well as some of the Air Law stuff. So I decided to cram and memorize. I began the task of doing flash cards for nearly all of the sections. This took an amazing amount of time, but no better way to review all of the course notes.

After which, I began studying for the P-STAR pre-solo exam. Which just goes hand in hand with studying for the written PPL exam. Studying for the P-Star was fairly easy as a good potion of the info is a refresher of the PPL course and I just needed to memorize a few details such as what the different tower lights mean (red, green, white) and some airspace heights. So I studied and memorized for a week and wrote the P-STAR exam. Managed an excellent mark!

I switched back into review and wrote more third party practice exams. The last weekend in July I managed to study three days straight studying about 25 hours total. Everything was solid in my head.

So August 1st was my scheduled Transport Canada Exam for my PPL. I passed! 89%. Nailed Navigation, but Air Law I struggled a bit. So I won't get lost, but I may end up in Jail.

In retrospect the actual Transport Canada Exam was quite difficult. Seemed like most of the questions they asked were all parts that I didn't study heavily for. And all the parts that I crammed studying on they didn't ask. Isn't is the way it goes.

Installing aileron gap fairing - 2 hours

I decided to switch over to the wings as I had my fill of proseal. The aileron gap fairing need to be installed so I made short work of the riveting. However I notice that the last rivet next to the inboard aileron cannot be bucked/installed since there is such tight clearance to the aileron service bulletin reinforcement brace. 


I decided to use a cherry max rivet in this location. I used a Cherry Max rivet gauge to figure out that in need a CR3213-4-2 pull rivet. Of course I don't have those so I will have to put in an order for it.

Closed up the right fuel tank - 6 hours

I gave all parts a good cleaning with wax and grease remover and MEK. Mixed up proseal and went to work. I was careful not to keep the proseal light on the back of the ribs and the z-brackets as noted in the manual.  




After all was done, I cleaned up the tank and put a proseal cap on every rivet head.

Preping the fuel tanks to close - 3.5 hours

Its time to start closing up the fuel tanks. I've been dreading this a bit since i'm not a fan of proseal or  MEK. I needed to prep the rear baffle of the fuel tanks so I went to work with my nylon brush and scored the mating surfaces of both baffles.

Next I cleaned the tank to get it ready.

After giving some thought to the process. I felt it wise to clean the primer off the z-brackets to allow a good clean surface for the MEK to adhere to. Also made sure that the holes where nicely deburred.

Closed the flaps and started closing the ailerons - 4 hours

Eager to get things finished now that the pre-close is complete. I started closing up the flaps as I thought they would be the easiest. 

Of course they go together fairly quick, there is still a bit of tricky off angle riveting to do. Fortunately nothing really flexes to the standard riveting with a bucking bar works well. You just need to make sure the bar angle is set up properly.

Once I had the flaps buttoned up, I didn't want to stop so I started in on the aileron. Following the procedure in the manual I riveted the leading edge skin to the to the nose rivets. Then I weighted the aileron down on a very flat surface. I started with the pull rivets on the leading edge/counterbalance pipe. One of the tricks I use is to poke electrical tape onto the pulled rivet mandrel. That way when the rivet is pulled, when the mandrel snaps, the work piece is protected reducing the chance of scratches from the mandrel.


I staggered the installation of the pull rivets similar to the method used for the rudder trailing edge in efforts to get a straight aileron. The result is an extremely straight piece!!!

Pre-close inspection for the wings is complete

The pre-close inspection by the MD-RA inspector is complete. Nothing to do other than close-up.