Flaps and Ailerons
Sept 2017 Update (Wings, Stabilators, Paint and more)
Total Build Time: 1245 Hours Here is the very short story of why I haven’t made a blog post in over a year and a half: I got married and had a daughter. In other words, life happened! However, I’m finally back at the project and rolling towards completion. I’ll be following up this post … Continue reading
Time-lapse Video, 900 hours of work and move to airport.
This video includes all the time-lapse footage I have from January 2014 until August 2015. It’s essentially the entire build of the airframe. It’s missing the first 200 hours of the project because I didn’t have the camera setup for that portion of the build.
Fuselage Completion #8 (Flight Control pre-rigging, VIDEO)
Total Build Time: 730 Hours. With my wings still attached, I decided to do as much as I could before removing them once again. Space in my basement is limited, so eventually I will need to remove the wings both to continue working, and to get the plane out of the basement at the end … Continue reading
500-hour project update (Videos)
My wings, aft fuselage and empennage are as complete as they can be until the whole aircraft comes together and rigging takes place. I decided this would be a good time to stop and look back at my progress so far. To do so I made several videos. These first 2 short videos I made … Continue reading
Wings #18 (Balancing Ailerons)
Total build time: 486 hours. The ailerons must be balanced for 2 reasons: control feel, and flutter. The plans for the aerobatic ailerons call for both ailerons to be balanced to each other by hanging them by their hinge point and comparing the trailing edges. The lead counterweight is the ballast that provides the balancing, … Continue reading
Wings #17 (Right flap and aileron)
Total build time: 483 hours. Right-side flap and ailerons went together much like the left. Ends trimmed to fit, aileron first. Again I liked having the wing substructure open (no skins) while building the flap and aileron, as I can verify fitment as I go, such as testing the location of the aileron … Continue reading
Wings #13 (Left Flap)
Total Build Time: 425 Hours As with the left aileron, I prepared several parts for the left/right flap simultaneously. Here are the drive horns: After having made the left aileron, the left flap was a piece of cake in comparison. The aerobatic aileron option actually makes the flap simpler and shorter, with … Continue reading
Wings #12 (Left Aileron, Aerobatic, Video)
Total build time: 404 Hours The aileron skins are complete. I prepared several parts for both the left and right aileron at the same time. First up was the lead counterweights. Lead block is simply no fun to work with, it’s kind of like working with metal, wood, and syrup all at the same time. I … Continue reading
Wings #11 (Aileron/Flap Skins, aerobatic)
Total Build Time: 397 Hours Before I finished the left wing, I decided to complete my left flap and aileron first. This would allow me to perform multiple test fittings of my work as I proceeded, as well as allow me to do some preliminary rigging of the push-rods before the wing skins go on. … Continue reading
Wings #2 (Aileron Bell-cranks)
Total Build Time: 307 Hours. The aileron bell crank assembly marks the first flight control interface I’ve built on the aircraft. As such, I took extra special care in making these parts, 1 per wing. It may be difficult to see in the following picture, but i made the holes in my right … Continue reading