First up on today’s to do list, removing the blue protective plastic with the soldering iron. Sometimes I don’t want to do this. It’s much quicker to just rip it all off, but then I remind myself that the extra protection is worth the extra time. 

I do, however, remove the entire vinyl from the inside of the aileron skin. 

Next time to cleco and label the aileron stiffeners in place. 

I label each stiffener from left to right with a number and a T for top or bottom. I actually use all 16 numbers so I know 1 to 8 are bottom and 9 to 16 are top. I also mark the skins where one begins and 16 ends. 

At first glance, the left and right aileron skins appear to be identical and perfectly symmetrical, meaning they could go either way. They are NOT identical. The bottoms of each aileron will have one section of three rivet holes that are closer together.

Additionally the alignment of the outer edge rivet holes is different. This is for the aileron hinge. You can see the difference in the two corners below. 

Finally I intended to dimple the skins and the stiffeners, however, in the move to the hangar I seem to be missing the pole to my c-frame and my male 3/32″ dimple die.  Very frustrating. Every session this weekend has had an issue, but its to be expected in a new shop.

Since I decided to finish the ailerons before the flaps… its time to work on the ailerons.  First step is stiffeners.  Always a lot of work for whats seems like little reward.  First step is to remove the blue plastic.Next up its time to mark the areas to be cut and removed.  The aileron stiffeners are a little easier than the elevators and rudder because these are all identical.  I mark the areas to be removed with Xs to make sure I cut on the correct side of the line.  After fifteen of these and multiple cuts with the die grinder and cutting discs its easy to lose track. You could probably use a set of tin snips, but I prefer the cutting disc.  Snips tend to cause slight bends. 

After cutting all of the stiffeners its time to hit them with the scotchbrite wheel.  I round all of the edges and remove the notches with the hard disc, and then I use the light wheel to give it a final once over. There are 32 stiffeners.  16 per aileron so it takes awhile to do this properly. I forgot to post my new toys from Harbor Freight.  Two new hoses for the air compressor.  The orange one was originally intended to be a backup, but the hose and reel below still needs a few attachments to work.  Additionally, I’ll need to figure out where to mount the reel. 

A picture of the hangar dog!