This section deals with assembling the outer leading edges which makes up half of the forward part of the wing. The inner leading edges are actually the fuel tanks which will be done in the next section.

Like the wings, the ribs are fluted, final drilled, deburred (all the nooks and crannies) and then laid out nice and tidy on the table (of course).

A strip attached to the inner most leading edge rib is cut off the tank skin which gets obviously used in the Tank assembly section. This strip is used to hold the inner part of the leading edge to the outer part of the fuel tanks.

Everything was cleco’d together while laying in the official Van’s cradle of which the template was actually outlined on the shipping crate top with a sharpie. This was smart use of all the materials.

I installed the stall warning horn in the inner most leading edge space while not really thinking about it. It turns out that the Garmin G3X system (glass cockpit) has a built in Angle of Attack indicator and warning so this old fashioned stall warning is not really needed and redundant. However, after looking into this, I decided I am going to keep this and have both installed in the airplane.

The inside area behind the landings lights on each wing were painted flat black.

A lot of aluminum ended up on the work benches looking all shiny and stuff.

The leading edges were attached to the main spar first by using blind (pop) rivets for the rib to spar attachment, and then skin rivets were squeezed and riveted with a bucking bar to the main spar outside edge.

Both wings are now safely secured in the wing cradle just waiting for the tanks to be installed in a couple months or several months. I have very little feel over how long the next section will take. It will definitely be the most complicated section so far.

This section is partially complete because I have yet to do the landing light lenses. I decided to wait until it was a little warmer before cutting into the plexiglass…or I am simply procrastinating this part.