Upper Wing V

5/8/2007

The aileron hinges are a bit of a bugger to fathom out, due to the plans being a little on the vague side on page 10 of the plans.

Ref the pic to the right: from left to right:

- regular outboard bracket x 4. Bushings as per plans.

- inboard upper bracket x 2. Handed. Bushing outside of one side only (other side has no bushing on the outside due to the dog leg slave bracket butting up, and no bushings on the inside to allow one to make free-bushings for variances in hinge centers when mounting to the rod-ends). The none-bushing side also has a top hole to allow for mounting the dog leg slave bracket.

-inboard lower bracket x 2. Handed. Essentially the same as the inboard upper but longer.

To summarize, outboard brackets have internal bushings, inboards' don't.

The aileron tip bow was cut and fitted, then shaped. Shaping really is easier than you would think on this piece. I used a flexi steel ruler to mark a desired finish line either side of the bow, then using a very sharp block plane to take off the surplus, then finished off with a flat sanding block.

When I made the ailerons a long while back, i didn't at the time finish-sand the leading edges. Using a 4' angle iron with sandpaper tacked on it, I got to work, burning a few calories to boot. It is surprising the high spots that appear when you really wouldn't expect any at all...the ply obviously has a tendency to sink ever so slightly in between ribs. The ply layers being so thin cause the high spots to show through aggressively, but of course, it all gets covered eventually.

I have now also added 1/4 x 1/16 strips to the aileron ribs between the leading edge ply and the alum' trailing edge, which will get feathered in.

Now all I have to do is repeat on the other wing :0|