Busy Day!

Today Dad and I were able to get a lot done today on the project. Since we've reached a bit of a hiatus with the wing we decided to continue on the flaps. I've been working alone a bit on the flaps the past couple of days but today we were really able to slam some work out. We started by drilling the skeleton to the bottom skin and drilling the hinge for the right flap. When we first tried drilling the hinge a couple months ago we really overthought it and decided to let it sit for a while. But today we just dove in and finished that task. They look good! When it comes time for attaching the flaps to the wings we're going to split the hinge pin in half and bend a 90 in each which will then attach to the flap brace, making it easier to remove later on.







Another project for the day was to fabricate the FL-706A brackets and to bend the FL-706B brackets. The 706A's are made from 125 x 1 1/2 x 2 aluminum angle and they support the inboard section of the flap where the linkage connects. A couple of passes on our band saw and a few swipes on the deburring wheel and they were ready to be drilled. I started by clamping the 706A to the flap spar and match drilling it. Once this was done, it got clecoed (while being drilled) to the spar. The next step was to put a 6.3 degree bend in each 706B, one will be bent up and one will be bent down (right and left). After trying a bending brake and failing I headed over to our friends hangar to seek help. He suggested a vice and together we decided to use a 1/4 drill bit and a set in the vice to put the bend in the piece. After a bit of trial and error, we were able to get them lookin' perfect. I took these back to the hangar and clamped one to the flap spar and clecoed it to the inboard rib, once this was done it got drilled. After everything is drilled, the aft most hole (not the tooling hole) gets enlarged to 1/4" for the bolt that connects to the rod end bearing. Once all together it feels really strong!

Dad was able to get the skins all devinyled and once this was done we deburred all of the holes, inside and out and dimpled some of the skins. These flaps are really close to being primed and riveted together. Thursday we should be able to pick up some more primer from Smitty's eventhough the forecast for the week looks crummy for painting.