Back in the saddle
Hours: 4.9 | Posted in AileronsBack home after two-and-a-half weeks away on “vacation.” Almost three weeks since I did any work on the plane, but I’m ready to dive into the ailerons. To that end, I started out with the tedious work — cutting, shaping, and deburring the 28 aileron stiffeners using snips, disc sander, and scotchbrite wheels.
Next, clecoed the aileron spars together with the nose ribs, then marked and drilled the counterbalance pipes (after deburring the ends to remove the very sharp stainless steel burrs). I cut a V into a scrap of 2×4 to make a holding fixture for drilling the pipe — slowest speed on the drill press, light pressure, and Boelube made easy work of the holes.
Put in the temporary rivets to attach the counterbalance to the nose ribs, and clecoed the ribs back onto the spar, then clecoed the end ribs in place. I goofed when I was match-drilling the reinforcement plates, and drilled out a couple wrong holes, which were the two holes intended for -3 rivets on the left outboard rib. I can’t see any reason why simply upgrading to -4 rivets won’t work there, or even oops rivets. Luckily, I caught myself before I had drilled all four sets…just one set is big.
Identified the various top & bottom skins and marked the for left/right, top/bottom, inside/outside, then drilled the stiffeners to all four skins. Finally, more tedious work — deburring the holes in all four skins and 28 stiffeners. Finished up by edge-finishing the four skins, and scuffing the lines where dimples are to go. The stiffeners & skins are ready for dimpling, prep, and priming.
