Not a lot to report for today’s post. I deburred all of the rivet holes for all parts on both flaps. I still need to deburr edges, and then dimple prime and rivet.

In other news, my leading edge landing light fixtures arrived from Duckworks Aviation. I got the blank install plates without lights. Currently I’m planning to use the Baja Designs LED’s that Mike Bullock is using, but who knows what may come out between now and finishing this airplane… I’ll wait a bit 🙂 I’ll provide a thorough explanation of why I’m going with leading edge lights instead of wingtip lights when I conduct the install.  Cheers!

In the last session I was able to finish match drilling the structure of both flaps and cut the 706B and 708 angles. I did not drill or bend these angles. So that was the project for tonight. But, when I began to un-cleco everything something didn’t look correct.  All of the ribs on Van’s diagram (left flap) faced towards the wingtips, but that was not the case on the right flap. The interior ribs faced opposite the end ribs. Its not uncommon for ribs to be a mirror image of one another, but usually they mirror each other in the same way.  I started to think I had installed the 705 interior ribs backwards. So I went to a few builder sites. On rvplane.com there was only a picture of the left skeleton, so I couldn’t see the one in question. I went to a few other sites, and from the pictures it looked like I had installed them incorrectly. But then…I noticed this little note on the diagram. I have no recollection of seeing this before, but when I assembled the flap skeletons I must have seen it because I did it correctly. Interestingly, I found at least two RV-8 builder blogs where the builders did not do this. Time to turn my attention back to the angles by match drilling both sets. Then it was time to put a 6.5 degree bend in the 708’s. Well, I don’t have vice but I know someone who does! I didn’t measure the 6.5 degree bend. I did my best to eyeball it as I was bending it.And then I used the rivet holes int he bottom skin to check for the correct angle like this. It took a few times to get it right, but both angles were done perfectly and rather quickly.I finished up by match drilling to the spar and ribs. The flaps are completely ready for the deburr, dimple, and prime stage. My hangar mate’s plane is still off for its annual inspection, so I’m hoping to get to the priming stage before he returns.

Finally, my attention has been able to turn back to the flaps. I started this session by remembering where I was, and figuring out what was next. The answer to the latter question turned out to be the hinges. I pulled both flaps down from the top shelf of my storage area and began figuring out exactly how the hinges go. This seems simple enough, except the diagram is a little hard to follow. The hinge goes further than the flap brace, but not all the way to the end of the spar. Ok, exactly where does it end, and how long is it.  Quick… to Mike’s rvplane.com.  Crap. It looks like the RV-7 flap is slightly different in this regard. (I actually already knew that, as I had noticed it at Oshkosh, however it probably took me about 25 minutes today to realize why things looked different. So I was a bit stumped.  This shouldn’t be hard?!?Finally!  There’s the annotation I’ve been looking for! I must have looked at this exact spot 10 times before I finally saw the hinge length stipulated at 56″ long.  Ok. Now. Again, I really wanted to have a good picture of what this looked like together, as I don’t have a clear picture in my mind of how this looks at the fuselage. Putting it up on the wing quickly helped.I started with the left flap and I measured out 56″.I ran across to Mike’s Tool Emporium and grabbed this handy dandy little tool that makes marking a center line easy! Here’s a good picture showing how helpful the centerline can be in ensuring you’ve got your hinge exactly where you want it. After I got the hinge on, it was time to turn my attention to the top skin. Having just moved hangars, I couldn’t remember where the skins were. I thought they were on the shelf with the rest of the flaps. I looked around the hangar, and didn’t see them anywhere. Now I started to worry… where could they be? Turns out, they were right in plain sight next to the bottom skins. Tonight is just not my night for being observant. After I removed the blue vinyl from the top skins, I should have caught the right flap up to the left one, but instead I turned my attention to the 706 and 708s. The 708 has to be fabricated from angle. First cut. Measured for the second cut. After the second cut and some treatment with the scotchbrite wheel here is the result. Next I measured out where all of the holes would go. Some need to be marked, and some are match drilled. I annotated both so I don’t forget. Now time to get the right flap caught up. At the end of the day, I have both flaps completely match drilled, and the 708’s fabricated. In the next shop session, I will have some fine tuning to do to the hinges, and then I can begin the deburring, dimpling, and priming process. There are apparently two methods to attach the flaps. 1: You can use one pin for the entire length of the hinge and insert it through the aileron hinge brace. 2: You can use two pins that insert in the center of the flap. Interestingly, several blogs mention these options being annotated in Van’s instructions. They sure aren’t in mine! I think only the RV-7 gets that annotation. Regardless, I plan to use two pins. Seems like a much easier way to remove the flaps when the time comes.