Time: 9 Hours
Today I needed to complete the prepping of the aileron gap fairings and the flap braces. I started with the left flap brace and hit all the edges on the scotch-brite wheel. These have 17 holes in them that need deburred which took a while.
One corner of the flap brace, the inboard spar side, needed to have the corner trimmed so that it fits around the spar doubler.
I then grabbed the bottom skins so that I could match drill all the holes.
I then removed the bottom skins as well as the fairings and braces. All the holes were deburred on the inside and out. For the aileron gap fairings the flange that rivets to the skin needs to be dimpled so I grabbed the pneumatic squeezer and hit those. Those flanges also needed a coat of primer as they will be riveted to unprimed skin. I could also dimple the corresponding holes on the top skins. I had to wait to do those as I needed to match drill these parts.
While the primer was drying on the aileron fairings I setup the flap braces for countersinking the skin side flange. Normally you could just dimple these however along with the brace and skin I will eventually be riveting the hinge to this spot on top brace flange sandwiching the brace between the skin and hinge. You don’t want to dimple the hinge flange so you need to countersink the brace to accept the skins dimples. I just rolled up the carpet on the workbench and drilled matching holes and clecko’d it in place. These holes will give the countersink bit a guide so it doesn’t wander as the hole in the metal get larger.
I taped off the flange with the countersinks and primed them so I won’t have to prime that area of the bottom skins later. While that primer was drying I got to riveting the aileron gap fairings. I was able to get to all these rivets with my pneumatic squeezer. The spar side flange used AN470’s and the skin side used AN426. All turned out very nice however I had a little pillowing on the spar side flange in just a couple of spots. You won’t ever see it so it’s not a big deal.
The flap brace was then clecko’d on for riveting, I will have to use the gun and bucking bar for these as it is reversed compared to the aileron fairing.
Riveting by myself is a challenge but I’m getting better and better at it. I was able to get bit flap braces done fairly quickly without any problems and they all turned out pretty nice.
I ran the SafeAir pitot and AOA lines in the left wing, just one of many items that I need to accomplish in prep for closing up the bottom of the wings.
To start on the ailerons is the next big task. The ailerons are like the elevators in that they only have end ribs and use small stiffeners in the top and bottom of the skins. They come in a long piece that you have to cut the individual stiffeners out of. Once they are all free you have to cut the angles out so that they fit in the skin as it tapers.
After marking all the angle cuts I fired up the bandsaw and made pretty quick work of them.
I think that will be a good place to call it a day, 9 hours of good Hangar time! Breakfast with the builders and then another good day tomorrow.
