REMOVING THE LEFT WING FUEL TANK
Now that I got the fuel floats out of my system, it is time to get serious. I had my wife help me uncradle the left wing and lay it out on some old blankets. I have never removed a fuel tank from an aircraft before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first step was reading through the manual from Van’s a few times to understand how it was built and assembled. From there, it was pretty quick work to reverse engineer the disassembly process. In addition to the exterior screws there is a series of internal carriage bolts that attach the tank to main spar. These all come off easily enough. I can already envision putting them back on with a torque wrench and getting that correct. I’m sure it will be just fine, but for now, my left wing fuel tank has been separated from the rest of the wing.
ADDITIONAL WORKSHOP MODIFICATIONS
Once again it is time to modify the workshop. I moved the empennage off to the side fully assembled. Then, I placed the left wing on a complement of blanket-draped work tables and sawhorses. It is far from the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen, but hey, so am I. I have placed the left fuel tank up in elevated storage in my garage with a bunch of other parts. Out of sight, out of mind. I have decided to revisit the leak testing and insertion of the fuel senders later. For now, I will shift my focus to the rest of the wing. The next pieces will be the stall warning system and associated access panel. I have decided to use both the stall warning and the AOA systems in my plane. I am new to AOA, but would like to incorporate it more into my methods as a pilot.
- Total time today – 1.5 hours
- Total time wings – 12.5 hours
- Total time aircraft – 220.5 hours