One of the last things I have to do before I move onto the fuselage, is to drill the flap hinge to the wing.  Before I do that, I wanted to install the aileron on the wing to verify spacing and align the trailing edges of the aileron and flap so that they are straight. 

The print has you fabricate some upper and lower spacers to place between the aileron bracket and the rod end bearings.  It is some small tubing that Van's sent in the "little baggies" of parts that I have been wonder "what's this for".  I could see right away, my challenge making these things is cutting them straight while trying to hold on to them.  Band saw>  Off comes a finger??  I decided to try the more docile tubing cutter, but I still couldn't grab the little suckers to hold them.  Then I had a great thought>>>  I wonder if the drill chuck could hold it.  Sure enough, it grabbed them just fine.  This worked great and the tubing cutter will definitely cut them straight.

Along the theme of trying to hold onto these spacers, I was having a hard time lining up the little washers and spacers needed that make up the aileron pushrod assembly.  Then I remember I bought some washer wrenches just for this purpose.  I got these from Cleaveland Tools for a couple of bucks (about $37 of them).  There are about four of these things of different sizes which hold probably just about anything I will be using on the RV.  Needless to say, these things worked GREAT.  I was able to slip in washers in places that I couldn't get with any other tool in my toolbox.

These little washer wrenches worked well. Imagine trying to hold onto these washers with a needle nose pliers.  Probably not going to work all that well.

One thing I had with reference to Van's washer call outs on the Aileron pushrod assembly was that their washer callouts were good for an idea where to start, but they weren't even close to what fit in their correctly.  I had to just experiment a little (and yes, my spacers were cut to dimensions as called by the prints).

A picture to document the washers I ended up using to get a proper fit.  This is the outboard aileron assembly (left wing).

Inboard aileron assembly (left wing).

I have the bell crank jig Van's sends out attached to the pushrod assembly.  This is jig is supposed to place the bell crank assembly in a position where the aileron will be in its neutral (inline) position.

Just another angle on the aileron bellcrank jig.

This is a milestone for the wings....  This is the last parts to be primed for the wings.  YAHOOO....  Flap braces, aileron gap seal, inspection covers, and the servo brackets for the TruTrak roll servo.

I managed to talk Tami into helping rivet the flap brace.  Yes, this could have been done by one person, but it is so much easier with two people.  Anyway, we knocked riveting braces for both wings in about 45 minutes.

Now all I need to do is drill my flap hinge to the wing and that should wrap up the wings for now.

After composing myself from mis-cutting the aileron bell crank to aileron push rod, I picked up where I left off on the aileron bell crank to stick push rod and drilled the ends to accommodate the 6 blind rivets used to hold the threaded rod end.  I again used masking tape to mark the location of the 6 holes as follows:

• The push rod is 1.125" in diameter.  This gives a circumference of 3.53".  When I divided the circumference by 6, each hole was drilled .58" apart.
• The flange for the threaded rod end will be inserted .5" into the push rod tube.  I placed the rivet holes .25" from the end of the push rod.

Using the spring loaded center punch kept the drill bit from wandering when I started drilling the hole.  Without center punching the hole, I couldn't keep the drill bit properly centered on the curved surface.

I drilled the holes in three stages.  I started drilling with a size #50 drill bit, then drilled to size #40, and finally drilled the holes to size #30.

I clecoed the rod end to the push rod to hold it in place.  The threaded rod end fits fairly snug in the tube, but I didn't want the thing to shift while I was drilling and then an oblong hole or a hole that didn't line up.  It was quick to throw a cleco or two in and it resulted in perfect alignment of all the holes.

Mix up a little epoxy primer and a couple of blind rivets and you have a finished aileron push rod.  I did deviate slightly from the plans in that I used 3 MSP-42 blind rivets and 3 Cherrymax rivets per end.  I have a lot of faith in the strength of a Cherrymax rivet so I figured that using them may add a margin of strength to the riveted connection.  At 50 cents per rivet, I didn't want to fill all 24 holes with Cherrymax rivets.

The aileron bell crank to stick push rods are done for now.  On to the next wing task.

I decided that I would start fabricating the aileron push-pull tubes.  My remaining wing crate is getting fairly empty (finally).  Not everything is fully assembled, but is clecoed so something that is.  I have been told that it is possible to finish the wings.

I started with the shorter, steel tube push-pull rod.  This is the rod that goes from the aileron bell crank to the aileron.  Van's specs state to cut this rod to 23 13/16".  Okay, say it again, Twenty Three Inches and Thirteen Sixteenths..... I got it... lets cut....

What the HE double hockey sticks is this?  The push rod has been cut to 23 13/32".  What is worse is that I didn't notice my error until I started writing up my log entry for aileron push rod.  I wonder if I can apply the man-hours to the re-work that will be required to the 51% rule.  Do you get bonus points for doing 10% of the airplane twice?

Okay, let me take a moment to digress and talk about when you SHOULDN'T build.  Sometimes it is very obvious when you shouldn't build the plan.  Some examples may include: when it conflicts with other family obligations, when you are sick, or after drinking plenty of beer.  Now those seem obvious, but then there are the not so obvious times you shouldn't build.  Some examples of this may include:  When your mind is on other things, you are equally interested in what is currently on the satellite TV channel, and when you want to HURRY up and get this done before you go to bed.  Now you may get by and have one of these things happening while you are building and you may not make a single mistake.  I was not that lucky on this activity.  This was a case when it was not clear that I should maybe put the project down until after a good nights sleep.  Start fresh in the morning.  I know that everyone makes mistakes, but it doesn't make me feel any better, when in retrospect, this was a stupid mistake.

Other than the push rods being 13/32" of an inch short, they turned out perfect.  I knew it was going to smoothly....

To get my two holes setup for the solid rivets that would hold the threaded rod end, I used a piece of masking tape, marked where the edge of the threaded rod end would be and then divided that distance by 3 to equally space the two rivets.

I bought the V-jig when I first started this project, knowing that I would need it for some of the control push rods.  This worked great to hold the push rod in place and centered for the drill press.  I really only needed one vice grip clamp to hold the push rod in place.  The rubber tips that came with the clamps worked great to hold the rod in the jig.

I read were some builders had a hard time getting the holes started as the drill bit wants to 'wander' when you start drilling.  If you haven't gotten yourself an automatic (spring loaded) center punch, buy one now...  They work great and I didn't have any difficulty drilling the push rod holes.

I wish Van's would just sell these welded and powder coated so they looked great.  This solution works, but it isn't the prettiest looking device.  I have also read where some builders had difficulty in setting these rivets.  I did two things based on reading Dave Parsons experience with these rods.

1. Van's calls out the use of AN470AD4-12 rivets to be used here.  I used a shorter rivet (-11).  These are still pretty long when pushed through the hole.  Even using the -11 rivets, I was concerned about being able to form a shop head without bending the rivet shaft over.
2. I placed the push rods in a vise to hold them securely while trying to rivet them.
3. I was able to use my pneumatic squeezer with the no-hole yoke.  This was the only yoke I could get opened far enough to squeeze the -11 rivets. 

With the vice holding the tube and me having some leverage with the squeezer, I was able to squeeze some decent looking rivets.  I touched up and primed the ends with some rattle can self etching primer.  Now if those rods hadn't been cut to SHORT......

I then cut the longer stick to aileron bell crank push rods.  After I learned that I cut the previous push rods to short, I had to go back out and check my measurements on the longer push rods.  My heart skipped a beat when I learned I DID cut those correctly!!!!

I did double check the overall length requirement of those shorter push rods (27 5/8").  I can obtain the overall length required per the print and still have numerous threads engaged in the rod end bearing.  However, I decided that I AM NOT going to compromise here and I have already ordered the replacement parts.  I believe the push rod parts will cost me around $25.  Not worth compromising for that kind of money.

Today, my goal was to get the right aileron assembled.  We did the table rivet hammer and bucking bar on the top skins.  We only had to drill out 4 rivets today.  Them rivets near the stiffeners are real bears.  A different bucking bar may have helped, but that space is tight.  Anyway, after getting done with the top skins, I moved on to the bottom skins and started pulling the CS4-4 rivets.

I went to pull the rivet in the picture below and it didn't "feel" quit right during the pull.  Sure enough, when the rivet shaft busted, I had a protruding shaft from the rivet.  Crap....  Now what?  I was able to push the shaft down and then I just drilled it out.  I was expecting it to take an hour to get this drilled out.  I got lucky.  I just pulled a new CS4-4 rivet with no further problems.

After I got everything riveted, I mounted the aileron brackets.  Pretty straight forward here.  I reference my trusty aircraft handbook to look up the torque values for these AN3 10-32 bolts and it gave a torque value of 20-25 in-Ibs.  I torqued them to the high end at 25 in-Ibs.

Don't forget your washers on the back side and I also had two threads past the end of the locknut.  I like to see at least two threads past the end of the nut.

The inboard bracket has three bolts and note that the center bolt has a washer on this side.  That is because in order to install this bolt, you have to turn it from this side since it secures to a nutplate.  The plans called for a 10L washer.  I tried to locate what the "L" means, but I couldn't find it.  I think that it is the thin washers.  Anyway, that is what I put in there.

Again, washers on the back side, two threads past the end of the nut, and torqued all hardware to 25 in-Ibs.

Both ailerons are done and the trailing edge looks as straight as can be....  YAHOO!!!  Now, back to the left fuel tank.  Tami can't wait to work with tank sealant once again.

Everything in the wing kit feels like deja vu.  You do it once and then turn around and do the same thing again for the other side.  I need to move on to the fuselage kit.  Anyway, my goal for today was to get all the drilling, deburring, dimpling, and priming done for the right aileron so that I could rivet it together tomorrow.

I will be brief on the right aileron as the ailerons are pretty basic structures to assemble.

Mounting and drilling the counterweight balance.  I started by drilling out everything along the leading edge to size #40.

Clecoed and drilled the nose rib holes out to final size.

Went back and drilled all the leading edge holes out to #30.

Just me dorking around with the camera again.

Next, I went back and bent the aileron using the brake I put together for the empennage kit.  I have yet to like this as a method bend skins to their final radius.

The makeshift brake did the job, but I can't wait to disassemble this thing when I get done.

I didn't show this on the left aileron, but this is how you drill the aft hole in the nose rib to counterbalance weight (water pipe).  I just drilled it out to a #40 and then drilled out the counterbalance weight to #30 after I had disassembled everything.  You could, however, drill it out to a #30 just like I show it here.  Those two holes line up perfectly.  Sometimes, Van's surprises me with the thought they give this (or maybe it was just coincidence they lined up).

Piece of cake.

After about 6 hours of really solid drilling, deburring, and dimpling I set up to prime the parts so that the epoxy primer could dry / cure overnight.  The epoxy primer is usually dry to the touch in about 30 minutes to an hour, but it seems rather "soft" for several hours.  It doesn't scratch or flake if I let it sit for at least a couple of hours.

I made my goal for today.  The right aileron is ready to assemble tomorrow and I am TIRED!!!!  I think I will call it a night.

I was getting ready to rivet the aileron spar reinforcement plates to the spar and realized that I wasn't quit done prepping the plates.  I forgot to countersink 4 holes on the plate for some flush rivets that will sit behind the aileron brackets.  There are 4 holes on the inboard plate and 2 on the outboard plate.  Standard countersink operation here.  Countersunk until a rivet sat flush in the hole.  No problem... I am glad, however, I figured this out before I starting riveting the sucker in.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE???  I was getting everything ready for priming the remaining left  aileron parts when I went looking for my Alumiprep bottle, there wasn't any that were "clear".  Sure as crap, when I got done with my last priming session, I had poured my Alodine back into the Alumiprep bottle.  Between the Alumiprep and the Alodine, it looks like the better part of a gallon...  Dang>>>  That is about a $40 dollar mistake.  It isn't the cost of the Alumiprep or Alodine; it is the shipping charges I get socked with since they are hazardous chemicals.

I was trying to figure out how I was going to apply primer to the inside of the counterbalance weight (water pipe).  And, then it hit me...  Cut off the little finger of a latex glove and roll it over the end (kind of like the military rolling condoms over the end of their rifle barrels, only this wasn't a rifle and I didn't use a condom.  Anyway, you get the idea here).  I was so smittin' with my ingenuity of the latex glove, I poured a couple of ounce of epoxy primer down the other end of the pipe and sloshed it around.  I was quickly put back in my place when the primer came out of the other 15 holes in the pipe at a very fast pace.  I had primer all over me, the floor, my tools, etc.

On the right aileron, I used some masking tape down the row of holes, put the latex finger on the end of the pipe and then put one wrap of tape around the glove to better seal the end.  That worked ALOT better.

For final assembly, the first thing I did (I believe this is what Van's calls out also) was to rivet the nose ribs to the counterbalance weight.  You have to bend the flange slightly of the nose rib (I just bent the tab being riveted slightly) in order to get your rivet squeezer in there to pull the LP4-3 rivet.  Pull the rivet, carefully bend the tab back into place.

Then do the other side the same way.  Just make sure that in both cases you have the nose rib pointing the right direction.

See the problem with the picture below (I know its blurry).  This is an LP4-3 rivet that accidentally got mixed up with my CS4-4 rivets which got installed on the leading edge to counterweight.  It is the wrong length rivet AND it is not a flush blind rivet.  CS4-4 rivets are supposed to installed here.  I caught that I had the wrong rivet installed after I pulled the rivet puller once.  By then, I couldn't remove the rivet by hand so, I had to continue to pull it and then drill it out.

Another blurry picture, but this is the type of river that was supposed to be installed there.  It sits a little more flush than the LP4-3 rivet.  None of the rivets sat as nicely as I like, but this row of rivets is right on the leading edge radius.

Once the counterbalance weight assembly is pop-riveted to the skin, it was time to cleco everything back together.  Just cleco the top side together.  Do not cleco the bottom (you will need that to gain access to buck the rivets on the top of the aileron).

This is just me dorking around with the camera.

Okay, the moment of truth.  It is time to rivet this sucker together for good.  I wasn't quit sure how to tackle this so I checked a couple of other web sites for ideas.  As usual, Dan Checkoways site had a method that I ended up using.  The best thing I could come up with is to use this table to hold the aileron.  You have to be careful here in that the aileron is awkward to handle with the heavy counterweight in it and with not having the bottom clecoed together, it is still pretty flimsy.  Here is how we tackled this riveting job:

• I ran the rivet gun and laid on the floor perpendicular to the table (laying under it).  This allowed me to reach the aileron with the rivet gun and I was able to stay out of Tami's way so she could work the bucking bar from above.
• Tami bucked rivets from the top and had to bend / open the bottom of the aileron skin to gain access to the rivet tails on the top.  You kind of have to do this by feel.
• I inserted the rivet, held it in the aileron with the rivet gun and positioned the aileron on the table so the rivet gun was up against the side of the table (to help hold it over the rivet).  The reason for this is you only have two hands and I was using one to run the rivet gun and the other to help hold the aileron steady during the riveting process.  The aileron wanted to slide and jump around when I started hitting it with a rivet gun.  By positioning the rivet gun and aileron so that the rivet gun is against the side of the table, it help keep the rivet gun over the rivet when I hit the trigger.

Even with our best efforts, we probably drilled out 5-6 rivets.  Most of the problems came when trying to get the bucking bar over the rivets that were near a stiffener.  I really should have had a small(er) bucking bar that could be positioned over / around the aileron spar.  Those rivets near the stiffeners are a REAL PAIN.

After I got all the top skin to spar rivets bucket, I got ready to pull the blind rivets on the bottom side.  Before clecoing the bottom together, I put in a blob of RTV at the trailing edge of the aileron.  Van's details this in the front of the builders manual and you do this during the empennage stage also.  The idea is that the RTV will dampen any vibrations on the trailing edge and prevent the two stiffeners from rubbing on the opposite side.

Cleco the bottom skins to the spar, and start dropping in CS4-4 blind rivets.  Pull, lather, and repeat...

After I completed riveting the bottom skins, I inserted the end ribs, and finished riveting the nose ribs.  It is important to review the rivet call outs carefully, there are a couple of different sizes that will be required in this area.

One aileron finished (minus the hinge brackets).

One more aileron to go.

I am on vacation this week and instead of spending a couple of days at Airventure, we decided (or more appropriately, I decided) to come home early and work on the RV.  It became a financial decision of sorts.  I figured that to fly over, rent a car, get a room, and tickets to the air show, I would be spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $500-600 for just two days of drooling over airplanes.  I thought the money I would be spending at Airventure would be better spent on flying or putting those funds towards the RV... Besides, being vacation, I thought that I could spend a couple of extra days leisurely finishing up the ailerons.

One of the few things I had left to do before assembling the left aileron was to drill the counterweight (water pipe).  Since this is a round surface, the countersink is not going to make a perfectly round countersink.  I set up the drill press and used the standard micro-stop countersink cutter with the cage removed.

I have heard some builders just using a 100 degree standard drill bit to countersink the counterbalance weight.  I just stuck with the standard countersink cutter.

The 'V' bracket worked really well to hold the pipe in one location.

My method here was just to countersink the counterbalance weight slowly.  Without the stop installed, I didn't want to countersink to deeply.

I measured my countersink depth by fitting a CS4-4 rivet in the hole.  My target was to countersink just slightly deeper than the rivet to account for the thickness of the skin.  The depth shown below here ended up being just about right.  I don't think that these have to be to terribly accurate as with other countersinking operations.  I just wanted to make sure that the rivets would sit as flush as possible.

In order to hold the aileron leading edge while dimpling the holes in the leading edge, I set up a 2" x 4" on edge on top of a flat 2" x  4" and clamped them together.  This held the leading edge off the table while I dimpled the leading edge.  This worked pretty well.

In order to dimple the leading edge of the aileron, I attached the male dimple die to the shaft of the C-frame dimpler.

You don't need to pound to hard on the male dimple die.  If you hold the dimple die and c-frame shaft near the dimple die, you can feel when you have dimpled fully.

A 'dry fit' of the blind rivet shows a pretty good fit for being on a bend.

I only worked had a couple of hours tonight, so I decided that I would start assembling the left aileron.

First thing I did tonight, was to break out my makeshift bending brake that you put together during the empennage stage.  I bent the skin to its final radius.  Pretty straight forward.  I am never really happy with how well the bending brake works.  My trailing edge was straight and looked the same size when compared with the full size figure on dwg 13a.

Here I started clecoing the ribs and spar in the aileron.  I wasn't thinking 10 minutes in front of where I was going here as I ended up removing the spar so that I could cleco in the leading edge skin too.

At least it is starting to look like another aircraft control surface.

See all those cleco's on the spar????  They were there 10 minutes and then I took them all back out again.

Disregard this step too.  In order to get the whole aileron assembly together, it is easier to cleco the nose rib to the leading edge skin when it is NOT attached to the aileron spar.

Okay, now that I have the mental picture of where I am going.  The first thing I should have done was to assemble the leading edge skin, nose rib and counterbalance weight.

Before clecoing the counterbalance weight in, I polished the external of the water pipe with some 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper and then ran it over the scotchbrite polishing wheel on the bending grinder.  This remove all burrs and rough surfaces.  I also used the deburring tool to soften the edges of the water pipe.

First I laid the counterbalance weight in the leading edge skin so that it was relatively even with the edges of the leading edge skin.  Then I clecoed the nose ribs to the leading edge skin which more or less held the counterbalance weight (pipe) enough to keep it from moving around a lot.

I then ensured that the counterbalance weight was flush with the edges of the skin.  (Not shown), but I used a cleco clamp on the other side of the leading edge skin to help hold the counterbalance pipe in position while I drilled the first hole.

Using a #40 drill bit and using the pre-punched holes in the leading edge skin, I worked my way down the counterbalance weight and match drilled the holes that will attach the counterbalance weight to the leading edge skin.

I ended up drilling one hole on each end of the counterbalance weight (pipe) to hold everything in place.

Just an inside shot of the counterbalance weight and the nose rib.

An aileron with some drag inducing cleco clamps.

Everything fit together like a champ.  I can't get over how accurate Van's pre-punches everything.

Once I had drilled all the holes in the counterbalance weight to skin to size #40, I went back and drilled everything out to its final size of #30.  #30 is needed to accept the CS4-4 blind rivets that will be used to secure the counterbalance weight to the aileron skin.

Short night without a whole lot of progress, but at least I am feeling like I am whittling away at it.  Its better than NO PROGRESS AT ALL....

Yesterday, I got the aileron skins and stiffeners Alumiprepped and Alodined before I quit for the day.  Since I am just getting back into building after a long period of just looking at these parts in the garage, I decided to keep my goals for today fairly light.  I wanted to shoot primer on all the parts and get the stiffeners back riveted to the aileron skins.

Did I mention yesterday how time intensive applying the AKZO Epoxy Primer is?  it took me around 3 hrs this morning to get everything out, mix up the primer, shoot the primer, and get everything cleaned up.  Kind of tedious work after you have done it some 50 times (it hasn't actually been that many, but it sure feels like it).

Using a spray gun must be like riding a bike.  I haven't shot any primer in about a year, but it turned out really good.

Just your standard back riveting here.  Just keep the rivet being hammered over the back rivet plate

I am probably an eccentric, but I still measure my rivets with a Go-No Go gauge.  It is amazing how much I remember.  I pretty much knew which rivets needed another shot before I ever put the gauge on it.

Back riveting the stiffeners went pretty fast.  i spent probably a little under two hours on this, but I didn't work real fast as I was watching a travel show to Alaska that I Tivo'd earlier today.  Alaska is one of the trips we have planned when the RV is done.

Not a technically challenging day, but I got a chance to more of less put on my "RV Builders Hat" today.

Below, I am drilling the A-408 spar reinforcement plate.  Of course, these are not labeled when in the kit.  The "squares" were in the brown bag of parts that comes with the wings kit.  I lined up the reinforcement plate with the edge of the spar and cleco clamped into place.  All the spar reinforcement plates are the same (until you drill them) so it doesn't matter which one goes where.

 
 

I didn't do a real good job of shooting pictures here, but the inboard and outboard aileron brackets are mounted to the aileron spar with AN3-4A bolts.  This requires that the holes be drilled on the bracket, spar, reinforcement plate, and rib to a #12 hole.  Van's ships these brackets with #30 holes.  Therefore, you have to take the bracket from #30 to a #12.  The trick is that these are steel and do not drill out nearly as easily as the aluminum parts so here is what I did:

• Drill out the aileron brackts to #12 in two stages using the drill press.  First I drilled the hole out to a #22.  Then I drilled the hole out to the final size of #12.  Debur bracket holes.
• With all the remaining aileron parts (reinforcement plate, spar, and rib) clecoed in place, I drill those out to a #14.
• Then I clecoed the aileron backet onto the reinforcement plate, spar, and rib and match drilled everything to final size of #12.
• Checked fit with a AN3 bolt.

The problem would be....  If you try to drill all these parts at the same time, it will be very difficult.  The steel brackets are not the easiest to drill.  Just drill them in multiple stages, use a lower drill speed, AND lubricate your drill bit while drilling or risk dulling your bit on the first bracket.  I used WD-40, but just about any light oil would work.  Just clean off your bracket when done.

Voila, 20 minutes or so and all the brackets are drilled and look great.

I decided that I would start prepping the aileron stiffeners and skins for priming.  There are 32 stiffeners and two skins to prep and get ready.  I haven't primed any parts for almost a year (looking back at my log entries).  However, I didn't appear to have forgotten how to do this.  Priming this plane with the AKZO epoxy primer has been a very time consuming aspect of this project.

I got a system worked out after a couple of stiffeners and things trucked right along, but that is still alot of scrubbing....

Almost 5 hours to prep these parts to have them ready to spray epoxy primer.  I made a conservative decision and decided that I would not try to start spray primer tonight.  By the time I got this far, it was 10 pm.

Aileron skins have been scrubbed with alumiprep and given an alodine bath.  Ready for primer....

While cleaning up the garage for the night, Auburn's fireworks show was still going on.  I shot a couple of picts to see if they would turn out.  Not to bad, considering that this is just a $300 point and shoot camera.

Let me take just a moment to vent on a recent experience I had ordering my fuselage kit from Van's.  On my confirmation, they wrote "VERIFY 7 OR 7A".  I reviewed the order and it looked fine so I put it in my file and didn't think anything of it.  The fuselage kit was supposed to be delivered around the time Airventure was going on.  Well, Airventure came and went without hearing a thing from Van's confirming that the kit is on its way.  Well, last week, I still hadn't heard anything so I called Van's to check the status.  The polite gal on the other end of the line said "ooh, we are waiting for you to confirm whether or not your order was correct".  WHAT!??!?  If there was a discrepancy, why didn't you send me an e-mail, call, or put "call to confirm 7 or 7A.  I am not ready for the fuselage so it is no big deal and that is one reason why I order early.  However, I was kind of miffed at the vague, cryptic note provided by Van's that I was supposed to extrapolate the need to call them before they will ship my kit.

Okay, enough venting.  This weekend, Tami headed up to Minnesota to go to a friends wedding.  I am still working on the left fuel tank, but didn't want to tackle any sealing without her help so I started working on the ailerons.  Working with fuel tank sealant is great aversion therapy on this dang plane project.

After studying the drawings in the aileron bracket sub-kit, I marked which holes had to be countersunk.  I no more than got started and my first countersink bit "bit the dust" so to speak.  The pilot twisted right off of the bit.  I was able to take a spring loaded center punch and push the pilot out.  I had two of these #30 countersink bits so this was just a small setback. 

I primed all the components on Friday and let the primer cure overnight.  The AKZO epoxy primer dries to the touch in a few minutes, but is seems to stay "soft" for several hours.  Anyway, I clecoed these suckers together and started riveting.  Assembling those were pretty straight forward once you figure out which way the factory rivet heads go.

Just a series of side pictures showing the rivet factory head orientations on the various brackets.

After getting all of the aileron brackets put together, I checked the hinge bearings for free movement.  They all work great with the exception of one bearing.  I can't move it by hand.  I am going to have to take that bracket back apart and probably order a new bearing from Van's.  I can't see anything abnormal with the bearing so I am not sure what is going on.

UPDATE:  The aileron bracket that had a difficult bearing to turn was the W-414 aileron hinge bracket assembly.  I didn't have any trouble rotating the bearing while the aileron bracket was clecoed together, but after riveting, the bearing became very difficult to turn by hand.

I had gotten some feedback from another builder that Van's had shipped some of these brackets and the bearing recess's was milled to shallow.  In the picture below, my original brackets are the ones with the primer in the bearing recess.  In order to rectify this situation, I just ordered new brackets and a new bearing (in case the other one got damaged/deformed).  When I primed the new brackets, I just put some light grease in the bearing recess.  I was then able to spray the primer and after the primer dried, I just cleaned out the bearing recess of grease leaving it nice and clean.

After priming was complete, I re-assembled and riveted the aileron bracket.  This time the bearing spun freely and everything looked great.  I don't know if the primer in the bearing recess contributed to the tight bearing or not, but if I was to do it over again, I would make sure that I could remove any and all primer from the recess before riveting them together.

Setting my aileron bracket issue aside for a while, I started cutting the aileron stiffeners.  There are 32 stiffeners for the two ailerons.  Pretty straight forward here too.  Van's has them punched just like the stiffeners in the empennage kit.  Now if I can just remember how I did that....  It has been a while.

After getting crazy with the tin snips, the stiffeners are cut.

After cutting them to size, I spent what felt like an eternity over at the band saw cutting the tapers on the stiffeners.  Then of course, there was the time spent at the scotchbrite wheel deburring everything.

The band saw does a nice job when cutting the taper on the stiffeners.  These scraps and SHARP...  Don't ask me how I know that.

Between the aileron brackets and stiffeners, this took most of the day.  I have been having a difficult time staying motivated lately.  It feels like this wing stuff is never going to end.  I was looking at my log entries and I have been working on the wings since January.  I had to take two months off for finishing up college, but other than that, I have been pretty regular.  At this rate, I am looking at 3+ years to get this thing done.  YIKES!!!

What can I say here?  Drilling, Deburring, and Dimpling.....  What I did here was labeled the stiffeners 1 thru 16 and then match drilled them all.  I also labeled the aileron skin as to whether it is right, left, top, bottom, inboard, outboard, etc.  It is not obvious to the casual observer which is which.  Right and left is easy as they are labeled -L or -R.

So how I determined which end was up so to speak was used the aileron spar as it only lines up with the skin pre-punch holes one way.  On the spar, only one end has holes drilled for a nutplate.  Aaaha, I have my unique landmark.  After that, getting your bearings on this was pretty straight forward.

What do you do after drilling?  Well, the correct answer would be deburring.  Okay, done that, now it was on to dimpling.  My Harbor Freight $5 dead blow hammer is hanging in there, but as I went along, I started seeing chunks of orange material go flying.  One of these times I am going to swing that thing and all the steel shot is going to go everywhere.  Time for a road trip to the Omaha Harbor Freight me thinks....

One aileron dimpling done, one more to go...

The president of the Auburn Airport Authority stopped in where Tami works today and was asking her how the plane was coming.  Tami went into great detail on the nastyness offered by sealing fuel tanks and told him he was more than welcome to come and log some construction time.  Jay normally stops over on my Friday's off and checks up on my progress.  Okay Jay Hauserman, this invitation is for you (I know you check this site from time to time).

I will take any day of the week off work if you want to come help pound rivets or play with tank sealant.  Bring your flying partner Steve I will find a way to put you both to work.  HeHe....