Category Archives: Flaps

Finishing the Flaps

Hours: 6
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With the ribs for the Flaps out of the way, I am ready to finish the flaps. First order of business is to ensure that I have the ribs all in the right order.
Completed ribs laid out along the right Flap

Once that was figured out, I first clecoed the ribs in place to the bottom of the skins and then closed up the skins and clecoed the top as well.
Ribs clecoed in place to the bottom of the Flaps skin Clecos in place to close up the right Flap

After checking that everything is aligning properly with the skins, I started riveting the skin. The top side is pretty straightforward. For the bottom side, there are a couple of tight spots next to the hinges, so the close quarter rivet wedge came in handy for a couple of the rivets.

Rivets in place Close quarter rivet wedge to rivet the tight space next to the hinge Bottom right side Flap ready to rivet Bottom right side flap almost done riveting

With the right side Flap finished and closed up, I then repeated it all for the left side Flap. There was also a couple of the edges where the hinges sit that needed a bit of deburring attention.
Some deburring was needed for the hole where the hinges go through Upside down view of the left side Flap ribs clecoed in place Almost done with the left side Flap riveting

After I finished the top skins, I did one quick alignment test fit on the wings and everything looked good, so then I finished up both sides by riveting the front rivet lane that closes the skin against the other side.
Front line ready to close up the skins of the Flaps for good Almost done riveting the Flaps Completed left Flap Both Flaps completed

Final alignment check

Once I finished all the riveting, I did one final test fit onto the wings. I used a bit of mason string and my laser level and everything is looking good. Now onto finishing the Elevator.
Final test fitting and alignment checks Final test fitting and alignment checks

Timelapse of building the Flaps

Getting started with riveting the Flaps

Hours: 2.5
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With the priming of the Flaps ribs out of the way, I got started riveting the Flaps. First order of business was laying out all the ribs in the correct order.
Flaps ribs laid out in the correct order

After laying out the ribs in the correct order, I started laying out the right hinges to go with each rib. There is one interesting rib that needs to be riveted in two steps as one part goes on top of the other:
Hinge and bracket to be riveted onto the rib Ready to rivet those 3 rivets that will hide under the angled bracket Ready to rivet the bracket on top of the hinge

Once I figured all of that out of the right side Flaps, I repeated the steps for the left side Flaps:
Right side ribs done and laying out the left side

I received the missing rivets for the assembly the other day, so now I was able to finish the riveting all of the hinges to the ribs to actually complete the flaps.Completed ribs laid out along the right Flap

 

Flaps priming & Aileron inventory

Hours: 4
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After having completed the inventory and preparing the edges and holes of the Flaps the other day, I went ahead to prime them so I can start assembling them.

As it turns out, cleaning the parts is a great time to chat with my mom over the phone, so she got to watch while I sat on my stool to give the parts a scrub using some Simple Green Cleaner to get them ready for priming.
Flaps parts laid out ready to clean Flaps parts ready for priming

Once that was done, I unfolded my small paint booth and primed all the ribs of the flaps.
Ready to prime the Flaps ribs Flaps ribs primed

Aileron parts inventory

With the Flaps primer drying, I moved on to unpack the Aileron parts and prepare them to prime next.

Unfortunately one set of ribs have some dents from the factory, so I will need replacements for those. The other parts were okay and just needed the usual treatment of deburring some of the edges and holes.
Dents in Aileron rib 2 Dents in Aileron rib 2

Then I went on a scavenger hunt to try to find an Eyebolt and Nut to go with the ribs as they weren’t in any of the bags of the Aileron assembly and eventually I figured that it might be on the pushrod that it threads into and I remembered that I have a separate Tube labelled Control Pushrods. So after opening that tube and pulling out a well packed bubble-wrap bundle I eventually found the rods for the Ailerons, and while I was at it, also the Flaps and attached to them were the Eyebolts and the nut mentioned.
Eyebolt mentioned in the Aileron assembly

The last thing I could not find, were the AN4-16A bolts, which are mentioned in the assembly instructions, but were not in the shipping manifest, so I added a request for those bolts together with the replacement for the damaged ribs.
I also found that I don’t have any 4.8x10mm rivets (HW-RIV-163) which I need for the Flaps assembly and those were also missing in the packing list, but need to be able to rivet some of the hinges onto the Flaps.

Hopefully I can get those replacements and missing parts soon so I can cut down on half-ready assemblies between the Elevator, Flaps & Ailerons.
Aileron parts laid out after I finished inspecting and deburring everything

Flaps & Aileron inventory and parts inspection

Hours: 2
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I’m currently still waiting for the correct Elevator ribs from the Factory before I can continue to complete the Empennage. So in the meantime I’ve moved on to get started on the Wings. First order of business is the Ailerons and Flaps, starting with doing the inventory and parts check.

First I had to find the sub assemblies for the Flaps and Ailerons in the Wings crate. After a bit of digging, I got all the bags that had to do with those two parts out and then starting laying them out to check them off the packing list.
Wing crate opened and time to dig out the parts for the Flaps and Ailerons Skins for Flaps and Ailerons present

Once I had all the bags laid out, I started to check them off the inventory checklist and got out my tools for deburring a couple of sharp edges and holes.
Bags of Flap assembly parts ready to be checked Bags of Aileron assembly ready to be checked

I confirmed that I got all the parts out of the crate and went back once to find the Aileron balance tubes. Then I started to get going on removing the protective plastic from the Flaps parts and inspecting the parts, marking each part along the way. There were a couple of sharp edges and holes, but by and large most parts were good to go.
Inspecting and labeling the Flaps ribs Done with inspecting and deburring all the parts of the Flaps