Saturday, June 20, 2026

§36-05 through -20 (Left), §36-21 thru -23 (both)

 It's been a very productive couple of days.   I built up the substructure of the Left flap, installed it into the forward/lower skin and verified that the upper/rear skin fit on both flaps.  I fully riveted the forward/lower skins on both of them.  

close up of typical cleco and rivets prior to pulling

overview of same state of construction

Dale came over and helped me bend the upper/rear skins.  The general portion of the KAI recommends using two boards that are hinged together to make a tool to bend the sheet metal into the final shape.   It didn't work worth a damn.  Bending the trailing edge all of the way to touch the other side did nothing; it simply sprang back to its original shape.   Following the advice of a VAF post, I ended up putting the flap skin on the floor, laying the board over it and literally walking on it back and forth and even springing up & down for good measure.   This produced about 75 % of the desired decrease in radius of curvature.   It was enough that it was not difficult to cleco together,  In fact, it was much easier than the leading edges of the ailerons, so I suspect that I'm in the correct ballpark.  I will enlist the opinions of other RV builders regarding the final shape of the trailing edges.

Last night I tackled the dreaded fuel sealant step and actually didn't make too much of a mess.  I had already riveted the forward/lower skin.  I scuffed the area that would get the fuel sealant.  I slide the upper/rear skin under the forward skin and fully clecoed it in place.  The natural spring in the sheet metal kept the rear edge away from the lip that got the sealant.   I smeared the sealant in place in about 12 minutes (out of a 30 min working time) and had a pretty easy time of clecoing the upper skin down onto the sealant.  I flipped it over, and clecoed/riveted the underside.  I was about half way through finishing all of the riveting (boring, but very satisfying) before having to close shop and go to work.

I'm expecting that I'll finish up both of them with another solid day in the shop.

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