Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Left Flap Assembly (4) & Right Flap

I clecoed the left flap bottom skin to the ribs.  I couldn't finish by inserting and clecoing the trailing edge wedge though, because I need the wedge as a spacer to set the distance of the trailing edge wedge on the right flap (I can't remember if I showed that before - the plans say to lay one wedge against the aft ends of the ribs, then slide the permanent wedge up against that.  This sets the wedge where it needs to be for drilling).  So with the left flap finished up until the point of riveting the bottom skin to the ribs and riveting the trailing wedge, I moved to the right flap.  Even though I've been told that the wave in the flap trailing edge is normal and will flatten out when the wedge is riveted, it's still a little disconcerting to see.


Now that I have the one main rib I was missing for the right flap, I can finally finish it up.  I clecoed the nose rib and hinges to the spar, the main ribs to the top and bottom skins, and match drilled everything.



I learned from the other flap and had a much easier time putting on the nose rib skins for the right flap.  I used the ratchet strap in the middle to start clecoing it to the spar, then moved the strap out towards the edges.  I was lazy and didn't feel like going out to the shed to grab a long 2x2 to hold the ribs flat while I put the nose skins on, so instead I just used shorter pieces that I weighted down.  I think this might actually work better, since they're flatter (shorter distance) and the weight just needs to span a couple of ribs at a time while working on the nose skin.