Center Rib, root position

[DesertBearhawk]

Guys, I am in the process of assembling my center ribs that are for the root position. I have them all drilled and colecoed up and I noticed that I do see the ribs have a little separation between themselves where the lightening holes are located. I was thinking that maybe I should put a row of rivets around each of the lightening holes to tighten this up. What are your thoughts on this? I have a picture with a few rivets laid out to show what I am talking about.

What do you guys think?

[Battson]

Personally, I can't see a good engineering reason why they should be rivetted together - less weight and less complexity is good. The kitset lightening holes are flanged for stiffness in opposite directions (away from each other) and so there will always be some gap in that case, obviously not a problem. (I notice yours are not flanged - is it required by Bob's design?)



Here is a photo of what I mean:

[DesertBearhawk]

According to the plans, and from what I have read the .032 ribs do not need to be flanged. I suspect that the reason they are flanged on your kit is due to tooling, as most of the ribs DO need to be flanged they just flange all of them....but thats just a guess....

[Enewton57]

Dave - there is no gain structurally but there is a gain in weight and complexity. No need to to it in my opinion.

[DesertBearhawk]

Thanks for the input guys! I think they are not going to get the additional complication of extra rivets!