Wings

Time to build some flaps! It feels good to have the ailerons done, and now I'm more anxious than ever to get these wings finished. The manual says the flaps are the easiest of all the control surfaces to build. I guess we'll see. It sure sounds good, after all the hassles I went through with the ailerons.

I started out with the usual beginning steps: study the plans, find the parts, pull the vinyl off as necessary, cleco together. Tonight I managed to get the bottom skins clecoed to the ribs. I'll have pictures soon. Nothing too exciting at this point.

June 9 , 2008

Drilled ribs to the left spar. Fabricated spacers - 1.0 hr.

No exciting pictures tonight either, sorry. With the short time I had, I was drilling holes in metal. Actually, I drilled the ribs to the spar for the left flap. I also fab'd all 4 of the FL-708 spacers needed between the ends of the ribs and the flap skin. Pictures coming soon.

June 10 , 2008

Fabricated shims, more drilling, work on hinges - 2.0 hrs.

Today I fab'd all the little shims needed between the ends of the ribs and the pseudo-spar on the aft sides of the flap skins. I managed to get the rear "spar" for the left flap drilled. I also drilled all the bottom skins to the ribs.

Here you can see how the flap skin is folded into a sort of pseudo spar. It is indeed very stiff, and I'm sure the engineering that went into this makes it sufficiently strong for this part. Actually, I think it's quite ingenius. Above, the flap skin gets drilled to the ribs. Below, the shims fill the gap between the ends of the ribs and the spar. The holes are drilled to #30 and it gets clecoed together.

Tonight, I also pulled out the piano hinge that will hold the flap to the wing, cut it to 57", and drew a line down one half of the hinge for the 3/16" minimum edge distance spacing for the rivets.

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