Its been a very productive last several days. While I am still waiting for the fuel senders to cure their sealant before testing the tanks, I have moved onto the ailerons. They were assembled and drilled per the plans. The assemblies are very light so there is a heavy stainless steel bar/pole in the outboard leading edge to lend weight to it. This helps when flying the plane as you can get better feedback and sense of control of the surface if there is some resistance (via weight in this case).
They were assembled and riveted inside of the modify tank cradles. There is a different plan in the manual on how to make these cradles, but all that is really needed is something that will let you place the assembly on the leading edge/nose and keep all the parts flat and true as they are riveted into place. I found the tank cradles worked just fine.
Once riveted together, the trailing edge of the aileron is treated like the other trailing edges, and assembled temporarily with fuel tank sealant to flatten and hold the top and bottom skins as well as the trailing edge piece in place. Once that cures, the clecos are removed and the edge is back riveted and then made flush on both sides. In my case, a lesson I learned on the rudder and elevators was to use a piece of aluminum angle (from Home Depot) and drill through it. Then when the trailing edge is curing, it is cleco’d to a completely flat surface. This helps ensure the structure is flat when it’s finally riveted. You can see the extended aluminum angle in the picture of the aileron on the cradle.
I got the left aileron assembled and let it cure over night while I worked on assembling the right aileron. The next day the left one was ready to be final riveted and the right aileron was sealed and cleco’d to the same pieces of aluminum angle.
I then went back and completed the AFS Angle of Attack items in the left wing. There were parts that needed to be sealed to the wing surface (all three parts really). You can see the bottom “drain” piece looks like a mirror of the top piece. This is the replacement piece I ordered and I used the bandsaw to cut it at an angle. If you look closely you can see the drain “stick” inserted through the drain from the outside of the wing and it is guided to the top drain. This stick will be used before each flight to make sure no water as accumulated in the top drain area. The tubing and bottom piece will make sure any possible water doesnt flow into the wing area.
When the left Aileron was completely riveted together, it was time to bolt on the pivot anchors to the inboard and outboard sides. This required cutting two bearing/spacers to ensure the assembly was completely tight. Once these were cut, I was able to mount and bolt the aileron onto the left wing. It swing up and down with ease and is completely flat against the top wing skin as it should be. There is a pivot bearing on the inboard edge that will connect to a rod into the wing itself that will be eventually connected to the flight stick.
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