Time: 2 Hours
Once the wings are removed you have access to the fuel tank attach bracket that is part of the wing structure. If you remember I drilled this bracket while it was mated to the bracket that is part of the fuselage. Now that the hole has been drilled in the wing side bracket you need to extend the hole to a slot. The theory for this is in the event of an emergency landing or accident you want the wings to shear away from the fuselage as they absorb some of the energy that you have during an accident. The wings are meant to break away aft or towards the tail so you want the forward part of the wing to be easily separated in this event. This slot allows the bolt to support the inboard end of the fuel tank up and down but will shear away as the wings are bent back in an accident. So I started with a mark 1/4″ wide and cut the slot just inside of those lines. I then used a file to clean up the edges and open until a 1/4″ bolt would easily slide through the slot. Filing this thick bracket is what took the most time but I wanted to make sure I didn’t take too much. All in all I’m real happy with how they turned out.
