Got a good start on the ailerons today, Started off by assembling the skeletons. Fabricated the skin stiffeners, match drilled to the skins, deburred, dimpled and primed the skins and stiffeners. The skins are ready for back riveting the stiffeners on.
The aileron uses a heavy stainless steel tube in the leading edge as a counterbalance. The tube is nestled into the two nose ribs and the leading edge skin wraps tightly around it. The tube is not pre-drilled and the first holes to get drilled are where the nose ribs will be riveted. After the tube was temporarily riveted in place in noticed the right aileron alread was twisted. I had to start over and re-position new holes in the tube. This is where the "perfectly flat" table indicated in the plans, comes into play. It was still tough to hold everything in alignment and mark the holes, not to mention the drill bit wanting to walk on the tubular surface. I guess i just lucked out on the left aileron. The right was satisfactory on the second go-round.
I can already see it's going to be challenging to build these ailerons and flaps without any twist or warp. I guess the key will be weighting down the flat surfaces while riveting.
Aileron Skin Stiffeners (28 Ea,)
Aileron Leading Edge, Counterbalance Tube and Skin
