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| WING FLAPS | ||
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The flaps are started by cutting the lightening holes in the flap spar. Since most of the flap pieces are mirror images of each other, I clamped them together and drilled pilot holes before using the drill press and fly cutter to cut the 2 1/4 lightening holes. | |
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The next step is to fit the ribs and the skin to the spar. DO NOT drill the flap spar to the bottom skin yet. If it's not drilled correctly, the rear of the ribs will not be flush against the skin and when it is riveted might cause the skin to bow. Once the ribs are drilled and cleco'd to the spar then push the assembly back against the skin and drill the skin to the spar. The last step at this point is to drill the rear of the ribs to the skin. | |
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Next is the flap actuation
bracket. This is not a difficult piece to make but you need to read
the plans carefully to find all the dimensions. In practice, the
actual measurements are not that critical and many parts will be
"ground to fit".
The second picture shows the areas that will be cut off. The plans are full scale so it's possible to hold the pieces to the print to see if the bends and size are accurate. |
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In this picture the bracket is
complete and drilled to the flap spar, bottom skin and rib.
The FL 406C is held in place with a clamp so I can drill it to the skin. I used a belt sander to cut most of the angles on the brackets pieces.
Here is another shot of the bracket pieces prior to final drilling. |
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Drilling the bottom skin to the FL406C bracket piece. | |
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Here is a picture of the center of the flap hinge. Notice there are some eyelets missing. After removing the eyelets I can now cut the hinge pin in half and insert and remove the pin as necessary to remove the flap (painting, repairs etc.) the number to take out is up to you but I took out 4 on this one but will try only 3 on the next one. Another alternative method for removing the hinge pin can be seen on Bill Vondane's flap. | |
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Flaps almost done and ready for fitting the rest of the skin. | |
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Flap all assembled and ready for priming. | |
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After priming it is time to assemble everything. The picture on the left is the second flap brace that I assembled. The error that I made here was to rivet the brace together, as you see, prior to installing it on the flap spar. The problem is that I can not squeeze the rivets that hold the inboard rib in place now. The plans warn about this. I didn't do it on the first one. No big deal, I'll just have to use blind rivets here. |
As you can see, the right two cleco's hold the rib in place but the rivets can not be squeezed so I used blind rivets. |
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I chose not to use the cradle to assemble the flaps. I found that riveting everything together on the workbench worked fine | |
