Today was almost all covering work. The great thing about covering is that I have very little “thinking” time. With wiring I work a while and think a while. With covering, I walk in, pick up where I left off, and work until something needs to dry. It’s therapeutic in the sense that it requires much less higher brain function.
I only had 3/8″ reinforcing tape, so I used two pieces per rib. In retrospect I should have used a bit more higher brain function and ordered a wider width so that I wouldn’t use so much of it. I prepared the right flap in the same way as the left and cut out the fabric for it. I got about half of the lacing done on the left flap before I went back home. Since the flaps are the first non-propwash parts that I’ve covered, I consulted the Polyfiber manual to check for the rib stitch spacing. I have been using 2.5″ spacing in the propwash areas, and I used that spacing on the inboard two ribs of the flap. I used 3″ spacing on the other ribs, and this is what I’ll use on the ailerons.
Here are a few pictures of me lacing the ribs on the left flap, just so that you can see that it was me.
I’m wearing gloves because the thread is waxed and I don’t like having sticky fingers. That seems to be something that I inherited from my Mom’s dad.
By now the knot is becoming pretty routine.
Sometimes I need to clean out my brain with a little mental floss.