Captain John and his wife visited today. Before heading out to a movie and dinner, we riveted the left wing’s front spar and main ribs. Prior to John’s visit, I tried doing a few of these rivets myself – it’s significantly easier to do them with a partner and I was grateful for John’s help. Plus, he’s already done this procedure on his RV-7 wings.

Here we are, riveting the wing walk ribs.

Rib riveting

Two pairs of hands made quick work of all those ribs, and only a couple of drill-outs were required. Here’s the finished product.

Wing walk ribs

I used my Christmas gift from my wife – the Sioux 2X rivet gun – on these rivets. The gun hits a little harder than I expected, but not quite as hard as my Avery 3X gun. It definitely hits a bit faster and feels better, probably because it’s a little heavier and doesn’t transfer quite as much vibration to the hand.

I also tried some Snap-Socs on the rivet set. If you haven’t heard of them, Snap-Socs go over the end of the set and help keep it centered on the rivet. Supposedly they help minimize smilies on the rivet and skins/flanges, and they seem to work as advertised.