Attaching flaps and ailerons

December 13th, 14th, 10h

I riveted the flap to the right wing, which went great. It is great to see both the flap and aileron on and rotating.

Then I moved to the left wing. For this one, I had to redo the hinge, since the holes in the previous hinge did not end up having edge distance. After redoing all the drilling, deburring and dimpling, I was finally able to rivet the hinge. However this hinge did not end up being perfectly straight, because of some enlarged holes for which there was no access to enlarge the countersink. So, I waiting to hear from Vans about this one:

So, I switch to working in the aileron and bell-crank. I redid the bell-crank since in the previous one the riveting of the end did not go great. Redoing the bell-crank went smoothly, then I attached the bell-crank to the aileron. Now the aileron for the left wing is moving great as well.

Centering Aileron and Setup Flaps

November 23nd, 6h

I centered the ailerons by creating a jig to set the ailerons at the neutral position. Then, I torqued to setting all the aileron bolts once it is set at neutral. Afterwards, I attached the flaps while making sure that the trailing edge of the aileron and flap align. Afterward I drilled the skin to the brace and flap hinge, in the pre set flap position. After deburing, I dimpled the skin and countersink the brace. Now, the flap hinge is ready to be riveted to the bottom skin.

Aileron and Flaps Attachments

October 19th and 20th, 12h

We rivets the flap and aileron braces for both the left and right wings. Then we attached the aileron for both wings. The aileron move pretty smoothly and have a good range of motion.

Aileron & Flap Attachments

October 13th, 8h

We made some great progress with the flap and aileron attachment:

Matched drilled the attachments for both wings
Debured attachments for both wings
Primed the attachments for both wings
Then, riveted the attachments for both wings

Then we moved to the aileron and flap fairings

smoothed the edges for aileron and flap failings for the both wings
Matched drilled aileron and flap failings for the both wings
Deburred aileron and flap failings for the both wings
Primed aileron and flap failings for the both wings

Bellcrank and Aileron Attachments

October 6th, 4h

After flipping the tank, we proceeded with the fabrication of the bellcrank linkages:

As well, we started working on the aileron brackets for both wings:

Installing Aileron Brackets

June 30th 2h

Installing the aileron brackets was a little tricky because of access. With two people we were able to get into all the bolt and nuts and set the torque values.

Finishing Aileron Riveting

June 15th, 3h

We got to finish riveting both ailerons:

Riveting the bottom of the leading edge rib to the leading edge skin.
Riveting the bottom of the main rib to the main skin.
Riveting the bottom of the leading edge skin to the spar and the main skin.
Riveting the counter balance to the leading edge skin.

The results look great:

Prepping & Riveting the Ailerons

June 5th, 8th & 9th 13h

We moved on with the preparation of the ailerons, with the aim to get the ailerons riveted and finished:

Drilled the leading edge skin to the aft skin, the spar, the leading edge ribs, the main ribs and the counterbalance.
Deburred the leading edge skin, the spar, the leading edge ribs, the main ribs and the counterbalance.
Dimpled the leading edge skin, the spar, the leading edge ribs and the main ribs
countersink the counterbalance.
Primed the leading edge, the main rib, the leading edge ribs and counterbalance.

All the work went on smoothly. Then it was time to start riveting the ailerons:

Riveting the leading edge rib to the counter balance: this had a little bit of tricky access requiring bending the tab of the leading edge rib, but it went on smoothly.
Riveting the leading edge rib to the spar.
Riveting the top leading edge skin to the spar and the aft skin. Access here was a bit hard, but we made it work with 2 people.
Riveting the the main bibs to the aft skin and spar.

It is exciting to see the ailerons come together pretty quickly. A little bit more riveting is remaining, and then the ailerons would be done and ready to attach to the wings.

Riveting Stiffeners and Prepping Skeleton

May 31th & June 1st, 13h

I riveted both left and right aileron stiffeners. It went very smoothly by using back riveting and the results look very good.

Then, I bent both the left and right aileron skins using the same bending tool I fabricated for the empennage. The bent met all the specs and aileron skin fit pretty nicely with the back spar.

Afterward, I moved ahead with prepping the skeleton:

fabricating the reinforcement plates
Match drilling and deburring reinforcement plates
Match drilling and deburring the aileron brackets. These took quite a while to drill and deburr since the material is pretty tick and the access for deburring was not great. In order to drill #12 holes, I stepped up slowly from #40, so it took many iterations. Then I had to use a small file to deburr the inside of the brackets. The results look good
Priming the parts.
Riveting the reinforcement plates to the back spar and the platenuts.