Flap/Aileron Alignment

We continued working on the alignment of the right flap and aileron.  We used 1/8" shims between the wing trailing edge and the flap/aileron.  We had to check at various points since this measurement varies along the trailing edge.  We also made sure the attach brackets were centered on the ribs top to bottom and they were clamped in place.  Hours: 1

Aileron/Flap Mount Bracket

 Holes were cut in the wing trailing edge to accept the Aileron and Flap mounting brackets.  Like on the previous wing, the holes locations were marked and then cut using a vibrating multi-tool.  This left a very narrow hole.  The holes were widened using a Dremel Cutoff wheel followed by round and straight files.

Holes cut in wing Trailing Edge

 We started aligning the the flap and aileron on the wing.  We still have more fidgeting with the location before drilling.  Hours: 3

Aileron/Flap location has begun

Right Wing Trailing Edge installation

Cleaned, epoxied, and riveted the aluminum trailing edge onto the right wing.  Care was taken to clean epoxy from the rib areas where the hinges will be later installed before it cured.  This was something we didn't pay close enough attention to on the left wing, which meant we had to take extra time later on to sand down dried epoxy on that wing.  After about 60 minutes of curing time, we smoothed the epoxy fillets.  Hours: 1.0

Trailing edge installed on right wing

Right Wing Trailing Edge

The next step is to epoxy the right wing trailing edge aluminum pieces. Before we can do that we need to prepare the mating surfaces. The areas were marked and then abraded. Hours: 1.0

Flap/Aileron Cable Guides

The holes in ribs 1 through 7 were drilled using templates.  Like on the left wing, we had to use "corrected" templates obtained from the Just Aircraft forums on http:\\www.wingsforum.com . The final holes were drilled at 5/16" and the required 2" piece of tubing was installed in each hole location.  Hours 1.5

Cable Guides drilled and Installed

Lift Strut Attach Brackets for Right Wing

A plethora of holes for the two lift strut attach brackets were previously drilled, and the brackets were cleco'd in place.  We removed the brackets, deburred all the holes, and cleaned/abraded the mating surfaces to get ready for epoxy.  We then epoxied and riveted the two strut brackets to the spars.

Lift strut bracket at leading edge of right wing

The center rivet on the back bracket was difficult to set because of a center brace that gets in the way.  We got around this problem by making a small wedge with a hole in the center.  We bent a rivet stem at first just to get the rivet into its hole, and then fed the rivet stem through the hole in the wedge.  The wedge then allowed us to use the rivet gun at a slight angle so that we could access and pull the center rivet.   We fought with this rivet for a while at first, but the job was much easier once we used the metal wedge Hours: 3.5

Strut bracket, with small wedge tool shown

Drilling Strut Attach Bracket Holes

Drilled all the holes in the two Strut Attach Brackets.  Cleco's were placed in approximately every other hole.  Hours: 1

Strut Attach Brackets Drilled & Cleco'd

Wing Trailing Edge and Strut Brackets

Started working on the right wing trailing edge.  As with the left wing, the trailing edge is comprised of two lengths of factory formed aluminum pieces. The were cut to final size, deburred and clamped in place.  At each rib, a single hole was drilled.  The holes were deburred and dimpled to accept a countersunk rivet,  The rib cap strip was countersunk at each hole to accept the dimpled trailing edge.  For the time being, everything is just cleco'd in place.

We moved on to locating the jury strut attach points using the same methods as the left wing.  The location of the brackets was marked with a Sharpie to be precisely located and drilled later.

Finally we attached the wing lift strut with AN4 bolts and checked for proper location.  Since the wing was setup at the factory, this was more of a check than anything else.  The strut attach bracket was clamped in place on the rear spar in preparation for drilling.  Hours: 4

Right Wing Lift Strut Attached

Right Wing Lift Strut Attach Bracket Clamped in Place

Work on Right Wing has begun

Today (after a bit of a hiatus due to other jobs that got in the way), we resumed work on the airplane.  We had previously finished most of the work on the left wing, so now we started on the right wing.  The first below picture shows the two happy builders with the left wing in our garage shop, anxious to continue building our Highlander.

Michael and Ed with the left wing

We started by installing the wingtip braces.  We had already made the braces when we worked on the left wing, so all we had to do was install them.  After some sanding, cleaning, drilling, epoxying, and riveting, we had the braces installed.  Below is a picture of the two braces (the two angled tubes) installed on the wing.  There are two stainless steel rivets in each end.

WingTip braces installed on left wing

 Next, we trimmed the ribcaps so that they were flush with the ends of the ribs.  We used small blocks of wood that we clamped to the ribs to use as a guide for the saw, as we learned (from the left wing), that it's easy to get the saw angle wrong without a guide.  Hours: 3.0

Trimmed Rib Cap

Wing Exchange

With the epoxy varnish dry, the near completed left wing was moved back to storage in the rafters of our storage shed.  The second wing was brought down from the rafters and moved to the garage to start the work on the right wing. Hours: 1

Ed and Mike moving the Wing to Storage

Left Wing Varnish, 2nd coat

Applied 2nd coat of epoxy varnish to left wing.  We used a couple of new respirator masks from 3M (7500 series) that we got from Amazon, which fit better and were more comfortable than the old ones.  They have the cartridge for organic vapors, and worked great to filter out the bad stuff.... didn't smell any of the varnish during application at all.   We also didn't use near as much varnish on this coat since the first coat had already done a pretty good job of sealing things up.  Hours 1.0

More Wing Sealing

The wing was flipped and the first coat of SuperFlite epoxy varnish was applied to the wing facing "down".  This allowed us to get the areas under the leading edge skin more easily.  Hours: 1.0

Sealing Wing

Wiped down the wing with acetone to clean the parts in preparation to epoxy seal the internal parts. The first coat of Superflite epoxy varnish was applied to the wing facing "up".  Hours: 2.5

Hinges and balsa

Added small pieces of lightweight wood (Balsa) to the flap and aileron hinges on the left wing.  These fill the volume between the aluminum plates that form the hinge points.  These weren't strictly required, but help with airflow around the hinges, and also help to strengthen them up a bit.  Once the pieces of balsa were in place, we sanded them even with the edges of the aluminum, and added a little bit of filler to fill in small gaps near the trailing edge.   Hours: 2.0

Balsa wood added in center of flap hinge

Pitot Tube Attachment Plate with Filler

Temporarily removed the pitot bracket, then applied lightweight filler to the pitot tube mounting plate.  Once dried, I sanded it to smooth the transitions.  Hours: 1.0

Pitot tube plate with filler