RV-9A Wing Construction Log

Sunday, December 14, 2003

Aileron assembly for riveting

I spent some time tonight assembling the left aileron for riveting. I had quite a bit of trouble getting everything to line up correctly. I could get everything cleco'd together except the last row of rivets attaching the nose skin to the spar. Things just weren't lining up well.

The solution required some work but here is what I did. I cleco'd the bottom skin to the spar and ribs making sure all the holes lined up. I put 3 rivets in the skin-to-rib to hold them in place. Then I drilled 3 new holes in the skin-to-spar (between the existing holes) and countersunk them. I put flush blind rivets in those three holes. This basically holds the skin in place without cleco's and allows the nose skin to fit over them when the time comes. I flipped the aileron over and did the same thing on the other side. Then I cleco'd the nose skin to the bottom side first, then flipped it back over (top side up). I cleco'd the skin to the counterbalance tube. Finally I cleco'd the top row of holes. (Had to push hard to get the skin to line up.) This basically left me with an assembled aileron that I could flip around as necessary and have it sit flat on the table. Sounds convoluted.. but it really isn't.

I put the blind rivets in the counterbalance tube and squeezed the rivets on the ends of the nose skin that are accessible. Then I constructed a cradle to hold the aileron vertical for bucking the spar rivets. Tomorrow I should be able to buck the spar rivets.

How distorted it is when no weight is on it.
Keeper rivets in place to hold skin to spar.
Assembled on the table.

(Time: 3 hours)

- posted by Matthew @ 11:32 PM