Bad Flap

Well, I have to confess that I have ruined the flap. I incorrectly installed the flap hinge and not only is it crooked (too crooked to install the hinge pin) but it rises the flap into the wing in such a way that it will produce considerable drag.

Yikes!

Drilling out the hinges to try to reposition the hinge would create elongated holes that rivets would never set correctly.

This is my most expensive error yet.

After a few back and forth emails with the mother ship, I got pictures of the correct way to position and space the hinge. Use a flat table, use a 1/16 ruler for spacing, apply weights to keep the flap flat, and drill holes with both flap hinges connected. I wish I had seen pictures of this process earlier.

Since I ruined the flap anyway, I used the bad flap to experiment with the correct process. Too many holes to be safe, but with the new process, the hinge fit correctly.

Customer service was great, and the new parts for the flap shipped quickly.

Flaps are done, and on to the ailerons. Actually, I have been working on both flaps and ailerons together. Lucky for me the goof in flap hinges did not occur with the ailerons.

Progress!

Well, lots of stuff getting done. We even organized our nuts and bolts. Nice plastic boxes for AN hardware.  We have both aircraft hardware as well as automotive hardware in the shop, so we have to be REAL careful to organize them and keep them separate.

Part 1 – The wing

Top skin is riveted. Forward top skin is riveted. Bottom skin is drilled and de-burred. All holes are full size and de-burred

This is the bottom of the wing.

Wing tips are a challenge but with lots of patience we are able to get a good fit. Will need a little filler and sanding though. We need to add navigation light here.

Wing tips are a chore.

Electrical conduit is installed and wire to the landing light. Cool!

The landing light will be LED from Duckworks.  Nav lights will be Aveo PowerBurst DayLite units.

Duck under the aileron push rod tube.

Part 2 – Building a Wing Stand

Some 2×4’s (stud grade), casters from Harbor Freight, scrap wood from the shipping boxes and a couple of feet of indoor/outdoor carpet from Lowe’s.

The carpet comes in 12 foot widths (Perfect!) so I had two 1 foot pieces cut.  Rough drawing so Tom and I had an idea what it was supposed to look like, and Bingo! Wing stand! Now, where to store it while we build the fuselage?

Shirts and Skins

Junior high PE. Do you remember shirts and skins? My first metal shop was also in junior high. Thank you Mr. Bradshaw for what I learned, especially the safety stuff. I also hit my first rivet in junior high metal shop. I still have the napkin holder I made. I lost the BBQ set though.

OK, on to work.

What a day.  The ribs are riveted on.

On to the skins!

Alignment is important and wing twist (or washout) must be eliminated.

Top rear skin first, then rear bottom skins then forward skins.

Forward skins will be the trickiest. They are kind of pre-formed but not all the way.

We are going to need MORE clecos. When building the RV-9A, most wing rivets are silver clecos. ALL the skin blind rivets are copper clecos. I’ll need MANY more copper clecos to finish this job. I probably over cleco but it makes sure everything is properly aligned.

By the way, Tom and I both wear shirts during assembly.

What got done today????

When I look at the pictures for today, it looks like nothing much got done.

BUT

A TON of work got done, MANY boxes got checked off. Stuff was ready to go!

Funny how pictures can hide all the work that got done. Reinforcement plates installed.

The Root Rib was bolted in. Aileron Bell crank for BOTH sides is completed.

I believe we are ready to rivet the ribs. TONS of drilling, deburring and cleco work was completed today.

Is it time to rivet the Ribs?

I’m excited!

Tools you need or want…

NEED

I discovered while working on the ribs, that there is a tool I thought would be handy that turns out to be vital.  The Right-Angle Drill.

The pneumatic right-angle drill I bought at a garage sale turns out to be vital when drilling the ribs. Because the head of the drill motor is so small, you can drill the holes without bending or distorting the rib.  

WANT

Yes, this is a fun tool, and probably not vital to the build and does require a compressor and must be handled carefully BUT the pneumatic “Cleco Gun” is a great addition to my shop.

I can’t wait to get to the wing skins!

RIBS RIBS RIBS!

Not the BBQ type, but those are good too!

Progress is made. We started with wings because they are easy to store while building the fuselage. Following the plans is important because there are so many parts!

The current tough part is how do you mount the root rib? We have many steps to go.

By the Way, my buddy David has the BEST BBQ sauce in the world. We call it Uptown BBQ Sauce (Of course, I upped it a little with a little rye whiskey!)

Done with wing ribs?  Time for BBQ ribs to celebrate.

This is where I draw the line

All ribs need to have a center line drawn on them for where to place skin rivets.

48 ribs, two lines per rib and Yikes! A lot of lines!

Ribs

There is an EAA/Sonex Aircraft video about using a Sharpie and holding the pen with your hand.

BUT

I spent a few bucks and got a great tool!

Edge Marker Block

This is called an Edge Marker Block and is available from aircraftspruce.com

One guy to hold the rib, and one guy to mark the line.  Fast and easy.

Remember not to use  a black pen because blue, red or green will help you be sure you got the correct mark.

Blue Sharpie!

FYI: Here is the EAA/ Sonex Video to do this by hand.

Blue Lining a rib for installation (brightcove.net)

Wing work has begun!

Rib #9 now has the aileron bell crank in place for both left and right sides. We are currently missing the bearings so this will not be completed right now. Parts on back-order

I thought the holes were incorrectly punched but it turns out the bell crank is on different sides of the ribs for left and right.  Who knew? The PLANS knew.

Right hand bell crank. On the inside of the rib.
Left hand bell crank. On the outside of the rib.
Left hand rib.

We have some stuff on back order so we will  not be progressing at full speed just yet. We are doing what we can for now.

We are reading the plans very carefully.

Lots of little parts! Deburr and clean. Some holes to drill.
Bending a lip is VERY easy with a brake. Glad I’m not pounding these in a vise.

Lots of shims to make. Two kinds. They go between the rib and the spar.

I love my plans stand!

While building an RV-9A I built a stand to hold the plans while I worked.

Old style Van’s stand

For the Sonex, The plans come in a different format. They are a “pad” of plans stapled together into a very thick stack. By lowering the plans surface and clamping the plans to the top, we have a very workable arrangement.

New Sonex style

The plans are tough and can be opened and close many times without wear.

Plans clamped to table top

So, I modified my Van’s stand to be a Sonex stand and I’m very happy!

Flip plans

By changing from an upright stand to a lay down stand, and clamping the Sonex pad to the desktop, I’m able to flip through and page quickly and easily.

With the Sonex plans, you work on a page at a time anyway. No loss.

All Nestled and Snug in their Beds

The airframe kit has arrived.

I have completed the inventory, and all is well.

Inventory Sheets

Long boxes holding skins, tubes, and angle brackets are stacked where we can get at them as required. The box with the three orange straps is holding the leading edge skins closed.

Sonex Model B

Small hardware and misc partsd are stored on shelving. This will require better organization.

Small parts

I do have some back-ordered stuff but I believe I have enough to get started. All the parts are organized to level 1 (more organization to do) but the stuff I will not need for a long time is safely stored upstairs.

The stuff I need first is right up front and almost ready to begin.

I made a mistake while doing the inventory because that would have been the best time to separate all the Wing stuff  (Wxx-xxx) from the Fuselage stuff (Fxx-xxx) and now I have to go back and do that (Level 2) Oh well, it will help with orientation.

The spars are completed and are here ready to get ribs and skin.

I’m doing the wings first because they will be easy to store while I work on the fuselage.

We start Monday.