June 3rd, 2012

Started working on the right wing this week.  Thankfully most of the parts are already primed and ready to go (ribs, skins, etc) so hopefully it will go a bit quicker.  Also it's easier already having done one, although I noticed from my log that I was at the same point last September, a lot of the detail is fuzzy.  Flipping the plans in my head is interesting too (Van only gives you the left views).

The first step is to unbox the right wing spar and get it all marked up.  The plans only show the left wing, so you have to mentally flip everything.  I do *not* want to build an upside wing, so it's marked everywhere which way is up and down as well as forward and aft (and inboard and outboard for that matter).

From Right Wing

The left wing was finished several months ago, so although everything is familiar I'm paying extra attention to make sure I don't do something stupid.

First step is to mount a boatload of nutplates that will eventually be used to bolt the right fuel tank to the wing.  The nutplates are attached with flush rivets so the skin will sit flat, so first we drill a lot of countersinks to accept the flush rivets.

From Right Wing

Closeup of the countersinks.  These are done with a machine countersink tool.

From Right Wing

Gotta say that even though I've already done this once, it is more than a little disconcerting to go plowing into a 12 foot chunk of very expensive anodized aluminum. You do not want to make a mistake on this.

 Here are all the nutplates clecoed in place and ready to flush rivet.

From Right Wing

And here is what it looks like once riveted.  I used a mirror so I wouldn't have to keep leaning over to check my progress.

From Right Wing

Once the nutplates are riveted, the center hole is machine countersunk to accept the #8 screws that will attach the fuel tank to the wing.

From Right Wing

Once those were done, it was time to install nut plates for the inspection covers that are on the bottom of the wing.  There are 3 inspection plates per wing.

From Right Wing

There are a lot of nutplates.

From Right Wing

Once those were done, a couple of #4 nutplates were installed in the root of the wing spar.  These are later used when attaching to the fuselage (no, they are not the main spar bolts - those are huge).

From Right Wing

Back side of the #4 nutplates.

From Right Wing

Figured I would put in a picture of a hand squeezer since I don't think I've shown how it works before.  Basically there are some dies in the throat of the tool, and squeezing the handles together closes the dies and creates the shop head on the rivet.

From Right Wing

This is a view of the finished shop head (which is on the back side) after squeezing.  The rivet is the flattened copper colored disc at the top of the nutplate.

From Right Wing

Next project is to fabricate the tie down bracket.  They give you the "T" shape metal, you cut it to length, tap it for a 3/8" bolt, then drill and mount it to the spar.

From Right Wing

From Right Wing

Close up of the tapped end of the tie down bracket.

From Right Wing

Had my first major oops with this part.  The bolts (AN3-5) are torqued to 20-25 inch pounds.  My torque wrench didn't go quite that low, so I "guesstimated" and in so doing stripped out one of the nutplates.  ARGHH!!.

This was my first experience trying to cleanly drill a bolt out of the nutplate so I could replace the nutplate.  Not fun.

What I ended up doing was mowing most of the bolt off with a dremel cutoff wheel, then drilling it out.

From Right Wing

From Right Wing

Went at got a new inch-pound torque wrench the next day that goes down to 20 foot-pounds.  Don't want a repeat performance.  I'm really glad this happened when I could get to it.  If it happened later, drilling it out through and access panel inside of the wing would have been a major pain.

Once that was all done it was time to work on the rear spar.

Reaming out the hole in the spar doubler for the aileron pushrod tube with a step drill.

From Right Wing

Completed doubler.  The upper part will overlay the spar and reinforce it.

From Right Wing

Once the rear spar parts were fabricated, drilled and deburred they were all primed.  I never remember to take a picture during priming.

Working on the main doubler at the root of the rear spar.

From Right Wing

From Right Wing

Riveting the rear spar together.

From Right Wing

Once the rear spar was complete the main and rear spars are clecoed together with the main ribs.  Starting to look more like a wing.  Checking my logs, what I did this week took almost 3 weeks last time.  Made really good progress.

From Right Wing

May 26th, 2012

This week I put the left flap together. Because all the parts had already been prepped (the way Van has you do it you work through both left and right completely before riveting anything) the left flap went pretty quickly.

 Riveted the nose rib assemblies together.

From Ailerons and Flaps

Riveted the two smaller nose rib assemblies to the spar.

From Ailerons and Flaps

Then riveted the inboard nose rib assembly, FL906A,B,and C (bracket,spacer and plate) to the spar and the inboard FL905 rib.

From Ailerons and Flaps

Once all those are riveted the remaining FL905 ribs are riveted to the flap spar.

From Ailerons and Flaps

Inside view of a rib riveted to the flap spar. This is the left flap.

From Ailerons and Flaps

Clecoed the top skin to the ribs, then clecoed the FL901A and FL901B nose skins to the ribs and spar.

From Ailerons and Flaps

Drilled the inboard nose ribs to 7/64" and riveted with MK319BS pulled rivets (the inboard nose ribs are enclosed by the skin so there is no way to get inside to buck them).

From Ailerons and Flaps

Once the nose ribs were done you put the flap assembly in the cradle (spar, nose skins, top skins and ribs, but minus the bottom skin and trailing edge). The top skin and nose skin are then flush riveted to the spar.

From Ailerons and Flaps

This is what it looks like once the top side of the nose skins and top skin is riveted to the flap spar.

Note the wave in the trailing edge in the picture below.  This is the reason it's piled with so much weight when riveting.  The weight straightens everything out so you don't get curled trailing edges.

From Ailerons and Flaps

Once that is finished, the assembly is laid on the table and the bottom skin is clecoed into place under the nose skin, then the entire assembly is weighted down. Then the bottom side of the nose skin as well as the bottom skin is riveted to the spar with flush rivets.

Photo album of all the aileron and flap photos to date.

This is a link to the entire batch of photos of the flaps and ailerons. A lot are labelled but not all.

Ailerons and Flaps

May 20th, 2012

Kind of behind in posting (this is actually being posted Monday the 21st after just finishing up the right flap). Glad to have that behind me.

I've read a bunch of posts by folks that had it come out less than straight and I really really really didn't want to do that. Very happy with how it came out.

The normal sequence of events (this applies to pretty much the entire airplane) is fabricate any required parts, cleco them all together, do all the match drilling, then take everything apart, deburr any remaining rough edges and all drilled holes, then machine countersink and dimple appropriately.  Once you've done all that, then you put it back together and rivet.

First you rivet the nose ribs and hinge brackets together.  There are two nose ribs back to back, with two hinge brackets and a thick spacer  in between.  All 5 pieces get riveted together as a unit, then are riveted to the spar.

Nose rib/flap bracket assembly.

From Ailerons and Flaps

Once all the nose ribs/brackets are put together, they get riveted to the flap spar.

From Ailerons and Flaps

Once the nose ribs and bracket assemblies were in place you rivet on the FL-905 flap ribs.


The thick plate on the end is FL-906B plate. The flap actuator mechanism connects to this plate to move the flaps. The area is reinforced with the FL-906A angle and the rib, spar and nose ribs are riveted together.  If you look at the ribs you'll notice none of the holes are dimpled.  I somehow missed that when I was going through my checklist prior to riveting.



Of course I noticed this *after* I'd riveted the nose rib/hinge assembly and the main ribs into place.  So I had about a 6 foot long structure with some very tight holes, all of which had to be dimpled.

Thank goodness for the tight spot dimple tool I got from Cleaveland Tools.  I hung this dude way off the table corner at a 45 degree angle and was able to work it in to all the tight spots and get the dimples in place.  Whew.

Tight spot dimple tool is below.  Basically the socket on the end is where the dimple ends up - you use the other side of a dimple die on top with the sheet metal sandwiched in between.



Once everything was dimpled it was time to attach the FL-901A and FL-901B nose skins. These are a very tight fit. The best way I found to do it was weight the flap as suggested by Van (used about 50# of sand in large freezer bags) and then use duct tape to hold the skin while I progressively tightened it. After two or three rounds of working it tighter I could get a cleco in one end. After that I just worked progressively along until the whole thing was clecoed in place.



The inboard ribs are inaccessible and have to be riveted with MK-319BS flush pulled rivets. The only ribs that can use AN426 rivets are the most outboard.



This is what the center section looks like where FL-901A and FL-901B inboard and outboard nose skins meet in the middle.



Riveting the FL-901C top skin to the nose skins and the FL-903 flap spar.



Working along the spar riveting the FL-901C top skin to the nose skins and FL-903 spar. The FL-905 ribs (vertical row of rivets) are not riveted until later.



Top skin is fully riveted and has also been riveted to the FL-905 ribs. I forgot to take a picture of the bottom skin being riveted in place. Basically the bottom skin is put in place, the whole thing is weighted to the table and you reach inside and flush rivet the bottom skin to the nose skins and spar. Tight quarters. Once that is done the AEX trailing edge wedge is put in place and everything is clecoed together.



Other side of the same assembly.  At this point the rib holes are drilled oversize to accept the MK-319BS pulled rivets since there is no way to reach inside and flush rivet the bottom skin to the ribs.



Flap assembly after flipping upside down, drilling the rib rivet holes oversize, then riveting everything in place.  Next step is to put rivets in the trailing edge, weight it all down, then back rivet the trailing edge into place.



I didn't take a picture during the back riveting. I'll try to remember to do that when I do the other flap. Finished right flap below.



Thankfully the trailing edge came out nice and straight.







Next - on to the left flap....

May 6th, 2012

Working on the left flap this week. There are lots of dire warnings (even more than there were for the ailerons) regarding building these dudes dead flat. As big as they are spanwise, a bit of washout could make for some interesting handling. The plans call for making a dead flat table about 8 feet long (already had that from the empennage). The difference here is that you need to make a flat top that can be drilled to allow clecoes to poke through. I got a sheet of 3/4" MDF, ripped it down the middle, and raised it with some dead straight 2x4's so there was enough clearance in the middle.

From Ailerons and Flaps

You lay the flap down, match drill every other skin hole to the table, then take it off and drill the holes out to 5/8".

From Ailerons and Flaps

Here's what it looks like when the holes are mostly drilled:

From Ailerons and Flaps

Once we get that done, we match add the ribs, match drill to spar and bottom skins, cleco, then stick the assembly onto the table. The clecoes on the underside of the skin fit into the previously drilled holes so it lays dead flat.

From Ailerons and Flaps