Upper Ailerons Done!

4/5/2006

Building the ailerons has been a long-winded affair it seems. However, I have to remind myself that there's almost as much work in an aileron as a wing. After all, a spar's a spar, and a rib is a rib - no matter what the size [within reason of course!].

The last [typical! - Murphy's Law] upper aileron gave me a lot of trouble when the 1/16 ply skin kept peeling away from the leading edge. The dishwasher came to my rescue, so all turned out good in the end.

I have now mothballed the ailerons away in a sturdy box. Although I always performed any gluing and clamping on a straight edge and flat surface, I somehow ended up with a 1/16 twist in them [press on one corner and the opposite corner raises], and a 'slight' bow when looking down the aluminum trailing edge ['bout a 1/16]. Therefore, similar to what I did with the lower ailerons, I've clamped them to the bottom of the storage box, and I'll add weights to the top of the box in order to 'persuade' them over time. Incidentally, I recently checked the lowers' to see how they were doing after all these weeks utilizing the same approach - perfectly flat and straight.