Wing bolts done
One of the cool things about being at Renton Airport is that it’s the birth place of all the 737s. There’s always a line of planes that are in the final stages of assembly, some with brand new paint jobs. I think the building on the right is where they paint them. It’s cool seeing them go out on the runway, test the engines up and down the length of the runway, and then line up on 15 to take off for either the first flight or close to it.
Today I saw one of the 737s on the compass rose, being hauled around in circles. Do they really do a compass swing on these big beasts?
And here’s my baby.
The entire evening was spent on the wing bolts. I got the bottom bolts torqued down, and then moved onto the small bolts. I thought they were going to be easier, but they were almost as difficult as the big bolts. They’re all in and torqued now.
This picture shows the starting point of the evening.
The next two pictures show how tight the space is for the bottom bolts. The outboard nut is at the bottom of the picture. It was difficult even taking a picture of it with the fuel and vent lines in the way.
In this picture you can just make out the nut behind the green tubing. You can see it’s jammed up against the gear leg tube.
I had a little time to work on something else, so I pulled out the wing push tubes. I set them in the wings, but realized I need a bushing in order to connect them to the bellcrank. I thought I already made that, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Guess I’ll make them again. That’s the point when I decided it was just too cold anyway and headed for home.