Plate nuts and Brackets

Monday 11th August 2008, 6hr 55min

Installed platenuts on right spar. Installed mid-section attach nutplates on both spars. Installed tie-down brackets and bell-crank brackets on both spars. Added hardwood bearing plates to wing stand brackets.

Great wedding -over 200 present! Always nice to meet Dorothy's extended family again. Since this project began, I am not visiting Athlone (or Kilkenny, where my own family are based) as often as I would like.

Having installed the tie-down brackets, I found that I had drilled and installed the W-933R tie-down bracket upside down (with the tapped end facing upwards). As the nutplates for the bell-crank brackets are not symetrically placed on the tie-down bracket, it was not possible to just reverse it. Solution? - Just tap the other end of the bracket of course.

It turned out that Vans have sent the wrong platenuts with the new spars. The ones marked K1000-06 (for the inspection plates) were huge and definitely not 'as advertised'. The others were marked K1100-06 but it was -08 I needed to attach the tanks. There were plenty more K1100-08s elsewhere in the kit so I was not stuck for those - just for the moment, but there are no other K1000-06s so I will have to wait for Vans to send the right ones. Fortunately, these are to join the inspection hatches to the bottom spar flange so they can be installed at any time up to first flight. I installed the 62 K1100-08s and finished up.