Building a Pitts 12

Even the inside of drissed holes get a coat of varnish

There are lots of nooks and crannies to be coated.

Polyfiber epoxy varnish was used to seal all wood.

The radiant heater purchased at Lowe’s did a great job of keeping me toasty while the weather dipped to the single digits.

Installing bolts through aileron bracket and spar into the nut plate

Aileron bracket installation

Completion of the upper wing meant a return to the lower wings. Ideally the lower wings would have been completed first, but the jig for drilling the drag wires was not available when the lowers were ready for that step. To keep working I set the lowers aside and began on the uppers. Once started I worked on the uppers to completion. In retrospect that was probably not the best idea. The size and added complexity of the sweep of the uppers make them more difficult. It would have been better to learn on the lowers.
I picked up work on the lowers with the compression ribs glued and ready for drilling of the drag wires. One of lessons learned on the upper wing was to be sure to provide generous offset of the drag wire hole where the wires cross over each other as they go through the spar.
After drag wire installation the remainder of the ribs are glued into place and the wing walk constructed.