Wings

Flaps 11 (2.5 hrs)

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After priming the flaps in my last shop session, it was time to start final assembly. First thing first, I went to borrow my buddy Mike’s heater. Its better than my propane setup. I’ve never seen it state “LO” as the temperature. I guess it doesn’t read below 30… it was 20 degrees F outside… and in the hangar!(null)

Nothing warms my soul like a little beer!(null)

The first thing I needed to do was to make a cradle for the flaps. Van’s instructions calls for it, and its a good idea, but you can probably get by without one. I used some spare board I had laying around. I screwed the two pieces together. I used an end rib to trace where to cut, and then cut with a circular saw. I used my belt sander to make sure the bottoms were absolutely identical so they would mount to the bench and maintain a true alignment. (null)

I attached the little brackets I made for the ailerons as feet and then clamped the feet to the workbench. (null)

The first step was to rivet the rear spar and ribs. I started with the right flap, which unlike the left, required shims. (null)

Both flaps with the rear spar riveted to the ribs. (null)

Next, it was time to install the nut plates for the flap attachment point. Don’t forget to do this before you close up the flaps!(null)

The nut plate is a little odd, in that it has one rivet through the 706 and the other just through the rib. The directions call for the 706 to be countersunk for a 426 rivet, but there is no mention of the other rivet. The rib is too thin of a material to countersink, and dimpling would likely leave the nut plate slightly uneven. The course of action chosen by several builders is to use an Oops rivet, which needs significantly less countersink.(null)

Here is my Oops rivet set from Avery. For this I used the NAS 1097 3-3.5. (null)

In this picture I have already countersunk the hole for the Oops rivet (shown on the right). I have placed the Oops rivet in the left un-countersunk hole to show how little it protrudes. (null)

This picture is a standard 426 rivet for comparison. (null)

Final products. (null)

Landing Lights 2 (3.5 hrs)

This entry was posted in Wings Wings - Structure on by

I finished the landing light install for the right wing today. Rather, I’ve completed as much as can be completed prior to purchase of the actual lights.

First I bought a belt sander at Lowes along with several other goodies. I clamped the belt sander to my work bench, creating a bench sander! I used the belt sander to clean up the edges of the plexiglass lens. (null)

After the plexi was cleaned up I set about drilling the plexi. This requires the creation of a strap handle to pull the lens tight to the skin. (null)

Here you can see the lens strap handle with the lens held in place with clocoes after drilling.(null)

 

Additionally, I final drilled and countersunk the plexi. Finally I riveted the nut plates to the backing strips. The instructions call for the strips to be countersunk, but the material is too thin for that to be the truly correct solution. I chose to dimple the strips and the nut plates. It was really cold in the garage, but I heated everything as best I could. No cracks in the plexi, but there are two spots on one hole that look like they could be the very start of the faintest cracks. I may drill that hole out to be bigger when it gets warmer.  Everything took longer than I would expect as it takes a fair amount of trail and error to get the strap to line up and work properly, and I didn’t want to make a mistake in the drilling.