Just got back from another trip yesterday. Got to work this morning riveting the upper spar to the nose and main aileron skins. Managed to do it myself this time, after good practice on the flaps. Came out well, I’m pretty psyched. Once that was done, I squeezed all the nose rib rivets I could reach.
A lot done
Got the aileron nose ribs, spars, reinforcement plates, platenuts and counterweight all riveted together today. Also clecoed the entire aileron assembly together in preparation for riveting, and mounted it in the 2″x4″ uprights I used previously to hold the aileron.
Al Jazeera aileron counterweight
The only remaining tasks before final assembly were to match-drill, countersink and prime the counterweight pipe, and assemble the spar/counterweight structure. You’ll find the details on this process in the previous entries on this page, so I’m not gonna repeat them here.
I was a little surprised to see the following text on the replacement counterweight pipe that Van’s delivered…click here for the full-size picture. Be patient, the original pic is 1+ megaabytes.
Dusted off all those left aileron parts
With the with flaps done, I dusted off all those left aileron parts and jumped back into finishing it up. First order of business was to do the final bend on the trailing edge. I used the bending brake I had made previously, but wasn’t getting that nice 3/16″ radius called for in the plans.
So I started experimenting with my hand seamer (no jokes, please). Some other builders have used them to do the final trailing edge bend, but I was wary about the seamer edges putting crimps in the aileron skin. So I hit on the idea of taping strips of 0.025″ alclad to the seamer’s jaws to distributed the seamer’s clamping force a little more evenly.
That worked like a champ, and with the dowels still taped in place, I was able to get the bend radius right where I wanted it.
Declaring the flaps complete…for now.
In another fit of marathon airplane building over the last three days, I finished the right flap. Did it just like the left one, so I’m not gonna waste your bandwidth with more pictures.
One not-quite-cool note, this flap came out with 1/16″ twist. I’m not quite sure how that happened, because I rechecked the jig before starting. But there it is and from some research I found out it’s not uncommon, so I’m not gonna stress over it.
With that, I’m declaring the flaps complete…for now.
Marathon airplane building
Did some marathon airplane building over the last three days, and Ellen and I managed to complete the left flap. First, I pulled the bottom skin off and riveted the ribs to it, bucking bar access is a lot better without the upper skin in place!
Next, I reassembled the flap without the spar. Ellen and I riveted the upper skin-to-rib and bottom skin overlap rivets. Access was tight, but the tungsten bucking bar made riveting relatively easy.
Ellen did the shooting, I bucked…
The next day I reinstalled the spar and pop-riveted the rib leading edge tabs. Nothing too tricky here, just need to gently push aside the flap leading egde to get the pop riveter in place. I used my cheapo riveter which I ground down to fit in tight spaces, worked fine.
After that, I solo-shot the upper skin-to-spar rivets and squeezed the rib-to-skin rivets – came out great!
Before squeezing the spar/skin/hinge rivets, I removed one eye from the center of each hinge. This is where the flap hinge pins will be inserted; I liked this idea better than drilling a hole in the inboard aileron bracket to facilitate inserting the hinge pin.
Squeezing the spar/skin/hinge rivets was easy, just had to make sure the squeezer set was narrow enough to make the shop head without hitting the hinge eye.
The only remaining task was to squeeze the rivets that secure the flap brace angles. Easy-peasy…
Don’t know why I didn’t get a shot of the completed left flap…but it looks just like the right one – so keep reading. One more thing… this flap came out with zero twist. Very cool!
Captain John and Dave “Wicked Stick” Rogers up for a little riveting assistance
I had a target of opportunity to get Captain John and Dave “Wicked Stick” Rogers up for a little riveting assistance on the lower wing skins. Ellen and I had started riveting the right inboard skin around the wing walk and rear spar and John, Dave and I picked up from there. Dave is one of the most skilled RV riveters around, and I was glad to have both his and John’s help. Dave and John did some riveting while I stepped back and took a picture…
John and Dave riveting
And lest anyone think that I didn’t do any work…I’m the one wielding the rivet gun.
Dave and Dave riveting
After a good morning’s work, we headed for the Sunset Tap and Grill.
Lower skin rivets
Riveted the flap actuator reinforcement plates
Just as soon as the parts had dried, I riveted the flap actuator reinforcement plates to their respective inboard ribs – making sure to get the nutplate in there too. One note here – make sure you squeeze the aft nutplate rivet before you put the reinforcement plate on, otherwise that rivet will be difficult to get with a normal squeezer yoke. The sharp-eyed builders among you will also notice that I used AN470 rivets here; Vans calls out flush rivets but I didn’t want to countersink the rib – it’s not really thick enough. I had the 470-3s, so I used ’em.
The next day I riveted the rear tabs on each flap rib to their respective skins, and clecoed the flaps together for final assembly. I’m not going to cover assembly of each flap, they pretty much go together the same way. Big thanks to Dave Rogers for letting me use his flap assembly V-jigs. I screwed ’em to my worktable and leveled them to each other – no problems.
One gotcha…after spending all that time in Antony’s paint booth, I realized that I forgot to prime the faying surfaces (i.e., skin overlap areas) on the flap bottoms. Since this is an area where moisture can get forced in between skins, I did some quick masking/alodining/priming of those areas and fixed the problem.
Back-riveted the stiffeners
After getting all those aileron parts primed last weekend, I back-riveted the stiffeners to the skin. No new pictures, but it looks something like this.
Aileron parts primed
Got the remaining aileron parts primed today, with the exception of the counterweight. No pictures here, they’re on the flaps page for more info.