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!

Ailerons Part 1 (1.5)

1.5 hours

I started with the RH aileron skin.  I got the main cut done and then started working on fitting the tip rib.

 It was a tight fit but nowhere near as bad as what Ryan Roth ran into here:
http://www.rynoth.com/wordpress/waiex/2014/02/15/wings-12-left-aileron-aerobatic/ 

Sonex must have updated the tip rib since then.

All I had to do was chamfer each corner a bit on the bench grinder and the fit was pretty spot-on after that.

I think it's going to be tricky to hold this rib in place while I drill the holes, but that's a problem for later!

Spar Mating Done (2.5)

2.5 hours

Spar mating complete!

I stopped at the hardware store and picked up some 1/4" and 1/2" bolts to help me secure the spars together for mating.

I started by drilling the three alignment holes up to 1/4" like the plans call for, then I bolted the spars together through them.

This put the 1/2" holes in the RH wing attach blocks and the pilot holes in the LH spar in pretty much perfect alignment, as far as I could tell.

Next, I used the drill guide to drill one hole up to 3/8", then I drilled that hole up to 1/2".  With the first hole done, I put a 1/2" bolt through it to further hold everything together.  These are not the bolts that will eventually hold the wings on the plane but they will work for this!

Then I drilled the other hole!

With both 1/2" bolts in, the spar assembly is rock solid!!!

The obligatory "Mated Spars" photo

The last step is to install these wing rigging blocks.  They aren't structural, but they will help guide the two spars into alignment with each other when I install them in the fuselage later.

Done!!!

Hours Breakdown So Far

I'm bored so I ran through all my entries so far and tallied up how much time I've spent building up to this point:

General: 11 hours
Tail: 51.5 hours
Main Wing Spars: 10 hours
Other Wing Stuff: 32 hours

Total: 104.5 hours

And that is spread out over 38 days of actual building, since 2012!!!

Anyway it's coming along.  I think my average days per year spent working are going to go way up!

Spar Mating Part 1 (0.5)

0.5 hours

I borrowed a drill from a co-worker which could hold a 1/2" bit, so I was able to do the final drilling out to 1/2" on the RH wing attach blocks.

Next I started getting the spars ready for mating!

The pilot hole in the middle of this 1/2" hole goes all the way through the LH spar web and the attach block bolted to the other side.  Eventually it will be drilled out to create a 1/2" hole through the whole thing.  There's another one of the same thing a couple feet to the right of this picture.

There are three small holes in each spar web which line up when the attach blocks are lined up, so I cut off three pieces of piano hinge wire and used them to align the holes.

Initial layout of the two spars

Piano hinge wire bits used to align the three small holes

The instructions say to drill out those three holes to 1/4" while the spars are clamped together.  I think what I'll do is drill them to 3/16" initially, and then bolt the spars together with some of the AN3 bolts I have on hand.  That should help everything stay aligned while I drill out the 1/2" holes.  After that I can go back and drill these three to 1/4".

Observe the majestic full wingspan!  These bar stools ended up being the perfect height to support the ends of the spars.

Here's where I am so far on the main spars.  Note that assembled spars come standard with the B-model kit, so this is pretty much the whole main spar build.

Right Main Spar Part 3 (2)

2 hours

Now that I got my 1/2" reamer in the mail, I was able to go back and drill the RH wing attach blocks up to 1/2".

Then I bolted the attach blocks to the RH spar, and the next step was to carry the 1/2" hole through the spar.  Sonex includes a "drill guide" with the kit, which is a piece of steel tubing with a 1/2" OD and 3/8" ID.  The drill guide wouldn't quite fit into the holes in my wing attach blocks, so I chucked it into the drill press and hit it with some sandpaper until it would just barely fit without getting stuck.

This is as far as the drill guide would go initially.

After a bit of sanding, the drill guide fits into the holes in the attach blocks with no slop!

Once of the attach blocks bolted to the spar.  In the center is the pilot hole in the spar which needs to be updrilled to 1/2".

Pilot hole updrilled to 3/8" using the drill guide.  It's actually perfectly centered, it's my picture that' crooked!

I don't have a drill big enough to hold my 1/2" bit, so I'll have to borrow one.  The next step will be to mate the spars together and carry the the 1/2" holes all the way through the LH spar and attach blocks.