Aileron Wood Preperation

The wood ribs of the two Ailerons were coated with SuperFlite Epoxy Varnish.  Two coats were applied to all exposed wood surfaces.  Hours: 2.5

Fabric backing plates

Construction of the aileron fabric backing plates was completed.  Some minor trimming will still be required on two of them to match them up with the edge of the ailerons.  The fabric backing plates were drilled and temporarily installed (with Clecos) to the ailerons.  Hours: 1.5

Aluminum fabric backing plate temporarily installed

More Aileron Pre-Fabric Work

Two more Fabric backer plates were fabricated.  These two go near the aileron control horn.
Hours:1

Two Aileron Fabric Backer plates

Aileron Pre-Fabric Work

Today Ed and I decided to tackle different parts of the pre-fabric work on the ailerons.  Ed located and drilled the holes for the fabric rivets on the ailerons.

Holes drilled in Rib capstrips on the Ailerons

I worked on the fabric backer plates.  Four backer plates were marked, drilled and cut to match the templates in the manual for the aileron hinges. Hours: 2.5

Four Aileron Hinge Fabric Backer Plates

Flap and Aileron: more filler work

Applied more lightweight filler on the flaps and ailerons, then sanded it down to smooth out the transitions as well as to fill in some defects (voids) that were in the fiberglass leading edge pieces.  We finished this filler work on all 4 pieces (2 flaps and 2 ailerons).  Hours: 5

Filler (bluish-green ares) applied

After sanding: nice transitions between ribs and the edges

PFD (Plane Fun Days) Fly-In in Brasstown

This past weekend, we visited our friends in Brasstown, NC for their annual Just Aircraft Fly-in.  Saw a lot of great planes (Highlanders and Superstols) and got the chance to take a ride, too, during one of the games.  Got the chance to see the balloon pop contest, and the limbo contest.  More events were held the next day (Sunday), but we headed back to Raleigh Sunday morning so missed out on those.  At night, they even had some catered BBQ and a band for entertainment.  Big thanks to Billy and all the rest that helped put on this event!

Plane Fun Days Fly-in @ Brasstown, NC

Michael (in right seat) returning from a flight

Flying under the ribbon for the Limbo contest

Ed (in right seat) after Balloon Popping Event

Flaps with filler added

Applied lightweight 2-part filler (a 3M product that is similar to Bondo but lighter) to fill in some defects (voids) in the leading edge of the right and left flaps.  Also added some filler to smooth the transition on the flaps between the ribs & leading edge, and between the ribs & trailing edge.  Excess filler has not been sanded yet.  Hours: 2.0

Lightweight filler added to left flap

Epoxy Touch-up

A small batch of the Hysol epoxy was mixed up and applied to a few areas on the flaps and ailerons that had come loose during the cutting of the leading edge fiberglass.  Once it started to setup the areas were smoothed out for a better appearance. Hours: 1

Aileron/Flap Work

We completed cutting the slots in the leading edge of the two remaining control surfaces.  We also noticed a few places that will need some epoxy touch-up between the false rib and fiberglass leading edge. Hours: 1

Aileron and Flap Work

We sanded the wood cap strips on each of the ailerons and flaps so that there is a "nice" transition between the cap strips and the fiberglass leading edge.  We used various methods to get the "nice" transition, sanding blocks, orbital sander, and Dremel multi-tool.  Once we had the transition correct we started working on opening the area around the hinges and control attach points.  We cut most of the material away using the Dremel multi-tool and then finished using files.  We got 3 of the 4 parts completed before stopping. Hours: 3

Ed sanding the Cap Stip with the Dremel Multi-Tool

Bottom of Flap with Fiberglass Removed from Control Hinge

Top of Flap with Fiberglass Removed from Mounting Hinge

Attaching Flap and Aileron Leading Edges

Leading edge epoxied in place, and held temporarily with tape

Using Hysol epoxy, we attached the remaining false ribs to the right flap.

Then, we cleaned and prepped the aluminum aileron and flap spars, mixed up some more epoxy, and glued all of 4 of the leading edges to their respective flap or aileron (both right and left sides).  There are 6 primary ribs, and 14 false ribs for each piece, so a total of 20 epoxy attach points for each aileron and flap.  Once the epoxy had cured for about 30 minutes, it was smoothed to make nice filets.  Hours: 3.0

More work on leading edge for right aileron & flap

We continued working on the leading edge for the right aileron and flap (similar to what we've already done on the the same parts for the left side).  We filed a few false ribs so that they would fit around the hinges and bell-crank, prepped the fiberglass surface for gluing, and then epoxied 14 false ribs into the leading edge of the right aileron.  After the epoxy had set for about an hour, we smoothed the glue fillets.  We also prepped the right flap for the same procedure, but will epoxy the false ribs into that flap another day.  Hours: 2.5

Right Aileron and Flap False Rib Locations

We marked the location of the false ribs, first on the right flap and then on the right aileron.  This went a lot quick since we had the locations with dimensions written down from the left flap and aileron. Hours: 1.0

Ed Marking Location of Aileron False Ribs

Right aileron and flaps (leading edge) Continued

Ed and I did the final fitting of last leading edge fiberglass piece.  A little sanding here and a little sanding there.  Hours: 1

Right aileron and flaps (leading edge)

After a brief hiatus for summer vacations, plus trying to get other stuff done around the house, we finally got back to working on the ailerons and flaps.  Previously, we had worked on the fiberglass leading edge for the left-side aileron and flaps.  Now we shifted to the same tasks, but on the right-side aileron and flaps.

This is messy work because we are carefully cutting, trimming, and sanding fiberglass.  The picture shows Michael test-fitting the fiberglass leading edge piece onto the aileron, and you can see that gloves and a breathing filter are needed to keep all the fine fiberglass dust from becoming an irritant.   The trimming and fitting takes a bit of time because we have to be careful so that it fits nicely at each rib, and don't want to mess up and trim off too much.  Hours: 2.5

Michael test fitting the fiberglass leading edge onto the aileron