Saturday, July 25, 2026

§28-14, -16 L&R Aileron bellcranks

 Two steps forward, one step back.    The right tank now holds pressure.  Sort of.   The left tank still has a definite leak at the fuel sender.  I used a cartridge of sealant from Aircraft Spruce, but the gun I bought (that morning) from Home Depot is much too large for the cartridge so I ended up just shoving the base with a spark plug socket as a make-shift plunger.  That made it barely possible to squeeze out the bead of sealant, with the resulting poor performance.   Since then, i've borrowed an appropriate sized gun and will give it another try when the next cartridge arrives from Aircraft Spruce.

I've been holding off attaching the spars to the tanks until they were sealed, but I'm going to go ahead and resume major construction since the leaks are at the other side and can be dealt with in parallel.

I built up the aileron bell cranks.  Took just a day and was a nice, straightforward project.

underexposed picture of the bellcranks


The aileron push rods have specific instructions to be primed.  I learned that just putting them on butcher paper and spraying them with primer, then leaving them overnight to get wet, results in paper that is well glued to the aluminum.  I sanded much of it off, but not all.   I stood the push rods using wooden dowels in the ground and sprayed them again while vertical.   I now have nice camo'ed push rods!

Aileron pushrods drying in the sun



 

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