Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Ailerons Complete

Ailerons for the sonex are pretty straight forward.  The most difficult part was getting the two ribs that support the lead counterbalance lined up.  It's hard to explain, but there are 4 pieces without prepunched holes that have to be lined up drilled and have to mirror each other perfectly in order to sandwich the lead counterbalance. You can see the assembly to the left of this picture on top of the aileron skin and in the background you can see it riveted in place.

The end ribs didn't fit perfectly.  It took a lot of tweaking, filing the skin, bending the rib flanges etc.  The final fit is okay but still not perfect.  Perfection is the enemy of completion.  It's airworthy and no one but me will probably ever notice.  Call it done.

Next...Flaps.