Test fit existing aileron to LH wing. The ailerons were built out of aluminum. The LH one is still covered in its original fabric and the RH one is stripped. They are rather heavy because there isn't much of distance ahead of the hinge point for counter balance. As such, the counter balance is very heavy.
Check out the last picture. If you look carefully you can see the rib stitching and fabric covering the rib stitching. Rather than running a single strip of pinked tape down the length of the rib, covering all the stitching on that rib, they made individual "doilys" with pinked edges over each set of stitches. Again, not conventional. But that's part of the charm of this aircraft.
The other thing worth noting is that each of the three hinge points on the aileron are completely different from one another. Considering Dalotel was intending to mass produce this plane, I would have expected as much commonality amongst parts as possible, but no.
The outer hinge point is a small diameter shaft that is screwed into the end of the aileron rib. See attached picture. The larger diameter end of the shaft is threaded into the tip of the aileron until the threaded end is completely buried into the aileron. Note the excessive length of shaft that becomes threaded into the aileron. I'm sure that the threaded portion of the shaft could be half that length without any issues whatsoever. The small diameter shaft runs through a bearing mounted on a precision machined aluminum fitting mounted in the wing.
The mid hinge point is bolted to the backside of the spar and in addition the bolts and the nut plates, it is made up of 3 precision machined aluminum fittings and 2 half bushings that fit into the aluminum fitting. See attached picture.
Finally, the root hinge point is a large diameter ball bearing assembly that is screwed onto a machined aluminum fitting. You can see it in the picture of the underside of the wing (underside of aileron is yellow). The torque tube connection shaft comes out of the aileron and connects to a complex universal joint inboard of the hinge assembly. Details on that connection in future entries.
Again, it's worth noting the quality of the machining and complexity of some of the work and yet, at the same time, the much simpler, much less glamorous nut plate that secures the aileron tip bracket. See attached picture. Some of the nut plates are beautiful. Others, like this one, are purely functional. I'm going to replace this nut plate with some AN nutplates riveted to an aluminum plate that is screwed to the wood. Most of the smaller bolts in the plane are metric cap crews that are safety wired in bundles. In a case like this, I'm going to replace them with AN bolts and have confidence in their strength.