Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Flaps complete!

Crossing items off the "partially complete" list is going swimmingly... tonight we finished the flaps! It went just about as well as the ailerons did on Monday, just a bit longer of course and a few more rivets to contend with. It feels good to be done with trailing edges, they are always such a tedious pain in the you-know-what. Now that all four control surfaces are complete, it was time to bolt it all up to the wing, stand back and take a picture!

L flap, inboard side

L aileron, outboard side

R aileron on left, L aileron on right

I've got some aluminum C-channel that I'll be clamping on to each of the 4 edges for a day or two each, to help them become completely straight while the proseal cures fully. It's still in that perfect state where it's cured, but still cleans off easy enough with acetone, and can be influenced by things like this clamping device. Hopefully when all is said and done, we'll have four perfectly straight and well-aligned control surfaces!