Finished right aileron, started left flap: 7.3 hours

Finished up riveting the right aileron. Everything went well. I will store it until the right wing is ready for it.

I also started on the left flap.

Several items I forgot to mention earlier in the week:

I placed the order for my quick build fuselage and finishing kit with Van's. The fuselage will show up about 75% complete. The finishing kit includes the canopy, engine cowl, wheel pants and other fiberglass fairings.

My fuel tanks were shipped from Evan's Aviation and should show up this week!

I reserved an FAA registration number for my plane: N769WB

 

Right aileron finished!

 

Starting on left flap:

 

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Prime and started riveting right aileron: 8 hours

Finished prepping all the parts then cleaned and primed.

Assembled aileron on riveting stand and started riveting.

This has been my first chance to use my new gadget which is a borescope / inspection camera for tight spaces. The one I have is unique because instead of showing the video on a small screen it transmits it via wifi to you iPad or iPhone. It definitely is helping with this tight space riveting.

I think it will also be helpful when I rivet it on the bottom wing skins.

 

The camera makes it easy to position the bucking bar and inspect the rivets.

 

This shows a finished rivet, an un-driven rivet, a cleco and the edge of the bucking bar:

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Right aileron work: 4 hours

More aileron parts prep. Finished countersinking pipe counterweight. Then started deburring and dimpling parts.

No photos today.

 

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Assembled and drilled right aileron: 5 hours

The right aileron feels like its going much faster than the left.

I got the following done: match drilled the spar reinforcement plates, reamed the brackets to final size, temporarily assembled the aileron, match drilled all rivet holes, drilled the steel counterweight pipe, disassembled everything and started countersinking the steel pipe.

 

Going quick:

 

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Finished brackets on left aileron: 1.5 hours

I used my trusty Makita grinder to do a little surgery on a socket for the AN3 bolts that hold the aileron brackets on. After that it was a relatively quick job to torque the brackets down. I rehung the aileron to get it out of the way while I build the right aileron.

I also gathered all the parts for the right aileron.

 

The modified socket and inch - lb torque wrench:

 

Front of inboard bracket:

 

Another bracket shot:

 

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Mounted brackets on aileron: 1 hour

I got the brackets attached to the left aileron. I couldn't torque them all the way down due to clearance issues with my socket. I'm planning on grinding down a socket for this and other tight fit applications.

 

I couldn't resist temporarily hanging the aileron:

 

 

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Finished riveting left aileron: 10 hours

I got the left aileron all finished today other than installing the bolt on hinge brackets.

Everything went well. There was some tricky riveting but by using techniques from other builders web sites it went fairly easily (not fast). I have come around to using the hand rivet squeezer more. I don't think I will use the pneumatic one unless there are a large number of repetitive rivets to be done.

 

Setting up the leading edge:

 

Riveting stand idea from another builder:

 

This was the hardest riveting:

 

All pop rivets on the bottom of the spar:

 

Finished product:

 

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Primed left aileron parts: 4.3 hours

Nothing real exciting today. I got all the aileron parts cleaned and primed.

I spent a lot of time making sure the steel counterweight pipe was cleaned and well coated so as not to have any dissimilar metal corrosion between it and the aluminum skin.

Also next time I prime parts I'm going to try the method of painting the pieces while they are hanging. I believe I can easily use the beam in the garage for this.

 

My one break through of the day was repurposing the wing stand as a counter weight stand for painting.

 

 

 

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Finished prepping left aileron: 8 hours

I got all the various pieces of the aileron match drilled, deburred, scuffed and dimpled. Next step is cleaning and priming.

A significant amount of the time was spent countersinking the metal counterweight pipe. The rivets that hold the skin to the pipe are flush so the skin had to be dimpled by tapping the male dimple die into the skin on top of the pipe. The results were good but once the aileron is installed no one will see them. The rivets are flush for clearance with the structure.

 

Dimpling jig for aileron leading edge (copied from another builder website):

 

Aileron leading edge ready to be dimpled:

 

 

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Finished drilling counterweight: 1 Hour

Finished drilling the left aileron counterweight pipe to accept 1/8 rivets.

 

Finished counterweight drilling:

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Left aileron work: 5.6 hours

Today I reamed the brackets for the aileron hinges to final size, temporarily assembled the aileron, then started drilling the aileron countersink.

On any holes 3/16 or larger I drill just undersize then use a reamer to get the final size. This gives a much more high quality hole than a drill bit.

Drilling the aileron counterweight also went well. The counterweight is a steel pipe and it seems like a lot of people have trouble drilling it through the aluminum skin. I used a drill guide, a new drill bit and a lot of Boelube. It took some time but the 7 holes I did tonight turned out well.

 

Aileron spar and nose ribs:

 

Aileron temporarily assembled:

 

Drilling counterweight:

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