Ailerons and Flaps - Part II

Progress.... gotta love it.  With everything that we normally do it a year being cancelled, I have gotten a LOT done on the Sportsman.  Coronavirus is obviously a tragedy, but having time to build is a side benefit.

Drilling the bottom skins of flap #1

Flap flipped over, and lining up the top skins for drilling

And drilling

And more drilling...

All drilled - top and bottom.  I used 4 x 4 blocks to raise it up, because I had a bunch of ends left over from my son's woodworking project.

Everything primed or being primed after cleaning and alodyning.

Structure on the jig, ready for skins.

Getting ready to rivet the flap bottoms.

All riveted, ready for inspection.

Riveting the top after inspection.

Top al riveted, except the trailing edge - which I glued in place prior to riveting.

Glue and aluminum angles in place, drying.

After dry, without the angles.  Rivet time... There are almost 100 rivets just on the trailing edge.  As the surfaces to be riveted are not parallel, I took a flat die and angled it to match the difference, then used a pneumatic squeezer (very carefully).  Only screwed up 1 rivet, which was replaced.

Left aileron post inspection, ready to close!

working from the nose ribs back, plus around the inspection cover doublers.

Top all riveted except along the trim tab.  Checking to make sure it all fits before riveting.

Riveting completed.

Glueing the trailing edge of the anti-servo tab prior to riveting.

Glueing the trailing edge of the left aileron prior to riveting.

What's next:

• Need to finish riveting the trailing edge of flap #2 and left aileron.
• Rivet bottom right aileron
• Wire servo tab and route wires (prior to riveting)
• Finish riveting right wing, plus a couple on the left wing
• Plan is to finish all the above before the end of July, and everything goes to the airport in early August (assuming I can get a hanger) and mount the wings and set the angles, cut and drill the struts, push rods, control cables, etc.

After all the above is complete, wings will come back home and work on systems.  Fuel tanks, plumbing, fuel pumps, wiring, pitot static, etc.

Progress is good...

Aileron and Flaps.... Part I

So the wings are progressing well.... bottom of the left wing is 99% riveted (just a couple bent ones to fix), and the right wing is probably between 40 and 50%.  A few hours and the right wing will be done.

But, I needed a break... so I decided to 'just whip the ailerons together'.  Boy, was I wrong.  

Looks easy, right?  That was less than an hour....

Hinge brackets forward of the main spar...

Drilling the skin bottoms.... this part goes pretty fast, especially when you have both setup at the same time.

Inspection hole covers on the bottom... these allow access for the bolts to go through the hinge bracket. 

Flipped over.... drill the tops.  I use steel weights to hold everything in place.

So this was fun.... cutting the aileron skin for the trim tab.  I debated on how to do this for awhile, and finally settled on a jig saw with a throw away piece of wood underneath for the long cut, and a Zip disk on a Dremmel for the short cut across the joggle.  I stressed about this way longer than it took to actually do.  Then cleaned it up with a file.

Similar plan for the inspection hole for the servo.  Used a jig saw, with a 1/4" piece of ply underneath for support.

Anti-servo tab cleecoed in place.

Inspection ring for servo in place.

Electric trim servo tab cut and being fit.

Servo temporarily installed.

After alodyining and priming, reassembly begins!

I built a simple jig that sits on top of a portable table to clamp the spar to, but allow ready access for riveting.  Block on the trailing edge that clamps to the wood top as well for stability.

At this point (bottom skins of both ailerons riveted), then get put away awaiting inspection.

So, onto the flaps.  My goal is to get both the ailerons and flaps inspected at the same time.

Below is all the hinge brackets.  3 pairs per flap.