Annual Inspection

[Mjk1951]

Pulled the Citabria in for it's first annual since the purchase. Things look pretty good ....except for some loosening nails in the rib/spar. Anyone dealt with this issue before.
Particularly how to access the nails. I would hate to cut a bunch of inspection ring in the lower wing surface..

 

[Bartman]

How many inspection rings do you currently have? My 7ECA had the rainbow inspection plates and a boatload of inspection plates on the bottom and I think there were even some on the top!

 

[Bartman]

I'm not an expert on this but do the nails that you can see have heads that look like they have concentric rings in them? If so, they're ring shank nails, I'd be surprised if they came out because I had a lot of trouble pulling them when I actually wanted them out. If you have smooth shank nails, you might be able to replace them with ring shank but you'd have to ask an IA what is legal. I guess what I'm saying is if they're loose and you can go to ring shank then that might stop any larger problem from forming.