Once the beginning of May rolled around school was winding down and Mark's itch to get back to the plane needed to get scratched! He was so excited to get back to work on the wings. He spent a few hours during the first weekend in May working on the stub spar channels. This work involved a ton of countersinking as the leading edge of the wing will get riveted with flush rivets to this structure. Mark has discovered that countersinking is more of an art than a science and he constantly checks himself for the depth of the holes. Mark countersunk 87 holes on each spar and then debured the backside of each one, finishing the session by squeezing some rivets that hold the stub spar doubler to the channel. The stub spar forms the inboard leading edge of the wing and among other things, provides extra support since this is the part of the wing one walks on (while entering and exiting the plane, not that Mark will have me wing-walking while he does aerobatics during airshows!)
All seemed to be in order to get into a good rhythm of weekend work. As it turns out, life gets complicated and airplane building took a back seat. My father passed away at the end of May and we took the beginning of our summer vacation to drive to Colorado to spend time with my family. Despite the reason, we spent some real quality time with family, just remembering and supporting each other. One of the lasting legacies Dad gave me is the knowledge and confidence to help Mark build a plane. All of those hours upon hours standing by his side watching him fix anything and everything mechanical, being a third hand and running to get the right widget gave me the necessary skills to help. THANKS DAD!
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