Last night was productive. I started the evening trying to get the fuselage jig out of the way. It took some time and creative lifting, but it's now suspended from the ceiling of my garage by 6 strong eye bolts. The amount of floor space this opened up was dramatic. But when you think about it, the jig probably takes up the same amount of space as my car does.

After that, I fiddled with the rivet gun. It hadn't been working. Per suggestions from some folks on the RV-List at Matronics, I filled it with oil a few days ago. Last night, I ran a bunch of air through it. It still wasn't working right, then suddenly it started firing properly again. Woo hoo!

Jeff arrived, and we drove a few rivets. But after looking at the rest of the wing ribs, then at the plans, we decided that Van's suggestion of using blind rivets looked like a really good idea. And Jeff has a much nicer rivet puller than I do, so we're going to do that next time.

Jeff and I instead back-riveted the inner flap ribs to the bottom flap skin.

Before Jeff returns, I'm going to make sure that I've got the left tie down bracket in place. I don't know why I did the right one years ago, but never did the left one. We'll then be free to rivet the remaining ribs to the front and rear spars then actually rivet wing top skins! I'm psyched.

I might try to get the aileron bellcranks in place first, though. In case I want access from the top of the wing.