Flaps (0.5)

0.5 hours

Not much time to work today, but I did get the flap skins cut out!

Ailerons Part 6 (1.5)

1.5 hours

I got the LH aileron up to the point that the RH one is at.  Once I get my new skinny rivet puller in the mail I should be able to wrap these guys up!

I also added a few more brackets to my wall of parts to store them for now.

Next up is flaps attempt #2!

Ailerons Part 5 (4.5)

4.5 hours

Today I got the LH aileron almost caught up to where the RH one is.

I got smart and used my piano hinge drilling template yardstick to drill most of the holes in the skin.  Since the holes are located at 1" or 2" intervals, all I had to do was measure and locate one hole and then I could easily drill the rest through the template.

After that it was the same process as the other side.

Ailerons Part 4 (4)

4 hours

The RH aileron is just about done!

I picked up a 12" long 1/8" drill bit at Ace Hardware which allowed me to drill the holes on either side of the counterbalance.  I think next time I place an order from Aircraft Spruce I'll get a few long #40 and #30 bits for the future.

 To get the holes between the two counterbalnce plates I had to remove the lead block.  I'll leave it out until the rivets are pulled.

Fitting the tip rip took a bit of messing around but I eventually got it looking pretty decent.  It helped to grab the rib from the inside through the big slot where the counterbalce goes through, until I drilled into my own finger!  More blood offerings to my workbench surface.

Once all the holes were drilled I took it back apart for deburring.  I used a soldering iron and a straight edge to remove the plastic coating from the skin along each roll of holes.

Then I just had to reassemble and rivet the whole thing...

For the few rivets around the drive rib and counterbalance weight, I found a super thin rivet puller that other builders have used, called a PRG 410:

http://sonexbuilders.net/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2345

I picked one up on ebay for $16 shipped.  Once I get that thing I'll go back and pull these last few rivets.

Ailerons Part 3 (3)

3 hours

I made a bunch of progress on the RH aileron.  I got pretty much everything fit except the tip rib.

These few holes are going to be tricky.  I'm not sure how I'm going to drill or rivet them yet!

Flap Revision

Alright so I did hear back from Sonex about that one dimension I was unsure about on the flap skins within a couple days, I just forgot to post the results.  They updated the flap drive rib locating dimension, but they also removed a cutout from the flap skins, since that cutout took material away from where the drive rib would actually be located!

Sonex published a revised aerobatic flap drawing to cover all the updates.  Unfortunately I already made that cutout so I'll have to redo the skins!  Sonex stands by their product as usual though, so they are sending me two new skins plus the ribs I had already drilled to my skins.

Anyway here's the difference I'm talking about.

The original drawing

Revision A

Ailerons Part 2 (3.5)

3.5 hours

Continuing with the ailerons, I cut out the LH skin.  As usual it went much faster than the first one!

Next I cut out the two notches in each skin.  The first one accommodates the counterbalance weight.  It fit perfectly!

The other detail is the slot for the drive rib.  I cut these out with a cutoff wheel on a Dremel tool.  I couldn't find my tiny round file though, so I'll have to buy one and tidy up these slots later.

You can see here the slot needs to extend just a bit more upward for the rib to fit.

Both skins done minus some touch-ups on the drive rib slots.

Next I busted out the piano hinges.  I had a nice hole template made from a ruler that I made several years ago, but it got destroyed in a previous move, so I had to build a new one!  Once that was done the hinges only took a few minutes.

 The last thing I did was lay out the holes for these skins.  Now it's time to watch football!