Last update: March 28, 2004
Right aileron. Continued measuring and marking right aileron skin for rib locations, rivet holes, etc. Sanded scratches from drive plates. 2.0 hours.
Right aileron. Marked and drilled piano hinge pilot holes (also deburred due to flimsy metal of hinge). Ground hinge ends to rounded corners. Sanded rib edges and marked for both ailerons. Drilled pilot holes on right aileron skin. Drilled out rivet on left aileron upon further examination and replaced using hand riveter. 3.0 hours.
Left flap. Aligned replacement rib; this did not go well and ended up
taking about an hour. Drilled pilot holes, inspected, reamed final holes.
Deburred rib and flap. Filed rib. 2.0 hours.
Right aileron. Aligned two ribs (took much time as usual), drilled pilot holes, clecoed, reamed holes to final size. 2.5 hours.
Riveted flap except for hinge line. Thought one rivet was less than ideal (though perfectly acceptable with hindsight). Drilled it out and enlarged the hole. Tech Counselor Tom S. pronounced it easily salvageable. I then proceeded to make a serious error in riveting the 72 rivets along the hinge line. Attempted to drill them out, but approximately a half dozen were difficult to get out and had enlarged holes, two very significantly (one involved a jammed head between the lip of the flap skin). I made the decision not to try and salvage the flap and will build another. Very difficult day. 2.0 hours.
Drilled out rivets on condemned left flap to salvage drive plate-- successful. Began fabricating assemblies out of channel stock for the separation brackets for the ailerons. Measured and cut channel on band saw, filed, drilled, deburred and hand riveted. Cut stock for second piece. 3.0 hours.
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Channel assemblies for aileron counterbalance. The left assembly is complete; the two pieces on the right are cut from the channel stock as per plans (pictured below the pieces). These have yet to be cut diagonally at their ends or have any rivet holes marked or drilled. |
Completed fabrication of second holder assembly. Measured, cut, filed, and sanded lead counterweights. 2.0 hours.
Aligned, measured plate to rib; drilled pilot holes and reamed to final size and deburred. Aligned channel assembly, drilled, deburred holes. 2.0 hours.
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Measuring counterbalance rib/plate. This was a major pain the empennage. The plans are dimensioned to show the required distance from the end of the plate to the base of the rib which, of course, isn't square with the plate. Instead, the plate upper end runs flush to the end of the rib. Make sure that's aligned and then casually measure the distance to 1/32 of an inch without nudging anything. Enjoy! |
March 13
Marked and drilled right aileron lead counterweight. Began work on left aileron counterweight assembly, drilling one plate/rib. 3.0 hours.
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More measuring, squaring, marking, swearing. |
Drilled counterbalance holes on second assembly; they lined up perfectly. Deburred plates (4) and ribs. Measured and marked rib centerlines. Filed and sanded ribs. 2.0 hours.
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Completed right aileron counterbalance assembly! |
Drilled holes through lead counterweight and discovered they did not align with pilot holes on second plate. Sonex suggests reaming to full size or up to 1/4 to see if they drill out. No such luck-- will need to order new rib, counterweight, and plate. I believe this happened because I tried to save time by match-drilling the second rib from the first instead of configuring and measuring it. Since the channel assembly was made by me (i.e., not CNC precise), its irregularities were enough to throw the plate of 3/32 or so of an inch at the end of the arm 12 inches away. Feh. 2.0 hours.
Continued work on aileron, drilling pilot holes for ribs, especially counterbalance assembly. Cur flap skin for assembly, drive plate at end, and compound angles for end. Problem with end rib-- would not fit properly. Tech Counselor Tom S. looked situation over and even he could not ascertain what was wrong. All dimensions for skin and rib checked with plans; all OK. Looking at other builder sites the rib appears different (does not go all the way to the forward point), but these are early examples of the kit. Found mention of fitting problems on Sonex Yahoo group; some (again early builders) indicated they made their own ribs. 5.0 hours.
Right aileron. Deburred, filed, and sanded ribs and flap skin. 2.0 hours.
Right aileron. Finished deburring for work completed so far; used Dremmel grinding wheel to round off cut edges on flap skin. 1.0 hours.
Continued work on right aileron. Aligned and drilled holes for hinge after careful checks with shim. Worked more with end rib but still not fitting well. Began left aileron, mirroring from plans. Measured and marked all rib hole locations, skin cuts for end anlges and notches for counterbalance assembly and drive plate. Aligned ribs, drilled pilot holes; reamed out holes for end ribs. 7.5 hours.
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Right aileron mostly complete. The offending piece at the moment is the end rib, not shown here. Other than that, she's coming together nicely. The counpound angles on this thing drove me (and others) nuts. |
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Drilling out the holes for the hinge rivet line was a challenge here. The holes were to close to the holers of the counterbalance to get the drill in, yet they could not be removed to make room. Solution: Tear the entire assembly apart and reassemble with one plate only, drill, then tear the entire thing apart and reassemble with the other plate in place, and drill. Lots of time for little details! |
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Starting on the left aileron (yes, you're very astute... this image is sideways... it's too bloody late at night for me to fix this right now... I should already be asleep anyeay). |
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