1.6 Hours -
I started working simultaneously on both ailerons, but limited bench space quickly made force me to focus on one at a time.
The aileron skeletons were relatively easy to assemble. The nose ribs (A-704) are clecoed to the spar and drilled.
The first step in assembling the aileron skeleton is to cleco and drill the A-704 nose ribs to the spar.
Then, the main ribs (A-705) are clecoed to the spar and drilled.
After the nose ribs are drilled, the A-705 are clecoed and drilled to the spar.
Once all the ribs are drilled to the spar, both the leading edge skin (A-802PP) and the trailing edge skin (A-801PP) are clecoed to the skeleton along with the counterbalance pipe. In the empennage, cast lead weights were used as counterbalances, but the ailerons simply use a length of steel water pipe that runs the length of the leading edge of each aileron. For now, I just assembled the left aileron.
After drilling the ribs, the skins and counterbalance are clecoed on and drilled.
With everything clecoed together, I final drilled the skins to the skeleton and match drilled the counterbalance pipe using the holes in the leading edge skin as a guide. During my next work session, I’ll repeat this process for the right aileron.
The left aileron is drilled and ready to be taken apart for finishing.
