Sep 07, 2022     Finishing right flap - (2.0 hours)       Category: Flaps

Now that the VHB adhesive tape had a chance to cure overnight, it was now time to do the double-flush riveting along the trailing edge of the right flap. As before, I used the hand squeezer with the "safety-pin style" angled dies to install these rivets and it went very smoothly.

Then there were a number of pulled rivets to install on the remaining ribs, which each required those holes to be final-drilled to a slightly larger size for these rivets. Finally, just a few more solid flush rivets to install along the inboard and outboard edges of the flap by using the hand squeezer again.

The final amount of relative twist between the two hinge brackets ended up being 0.2 degrees, which is the same as the twist in the left flap, and seems like an acceptable amount.

What's next? With both flaps fully complete, it's time to finish up the ailerons as well.

  Sep 06, 2022     Closing up nose of right flap - (3.5 hours)       Category: Flaps

I resumed work on the right flap by closing up the nose by flush riveting the line of rivets on the bottom side. As before, I used a digital level to monitor the twist of the two hinge brackets while riveting with the bucking bar held inside. Once about a dozen rivets were in, the twist seems to be stable and doesn't vary as the remaining rivets went in. I think the final twist of this flap will be about 0.2 degrees, the same as the left one. With those solid rivets in, I finished up by installing the pulled rivets along the nose ribs.

I prepared the two aluminum extrusion wedge pieces by adhering the 3M VHB tape to both sides, and then inserting them between the two skins and clecoing them in place. As before, I placed the flap upside down on my kitchen countertop and weighed it down with some cement trim and dumbbell weights.

What's next? After the adhesive has cured overnight, I can do the double-flush riveting on that trailing edge. Then I can finish up by installing the remaining pulled rivets for the ribs

  Sep 05, 2022     Right flap trailing edge countersinking and dimpling - (1.0 hour)       Category: Flaps

This was a quick session just to make some progress on restarting work on the right flap. These steps were the same as what I did a couple day ago for the left flap.

I started by measuring, cutting, and trimming the two pieces of trailing edge extrusion (VA-140) to match the length of the right flap skin. Next, I used the micro-stop drill cage to countersink both sides of the TE extrusions to accept a dimpled skin. Then I used my hand squeezer to dimple the trailing edge of both of the skins.

What's next? Time to rivet in the remaining skin to the right flap, and set the adhesive tape for the trailing edge.

  Sep 04, 2022     Finishing riveting of the left flap - (2.5 hours)       Category: Flaps

After letting the VHB adhesive tape cure on the trailing edge overnight, it was now time to actually do the riveting. This is done using a "double-flush" technique so that both sides are flat. Additionally, since the trailing edge is at an angled shape, so I'm using a special rivet squeezing die set from Cleaveland Tools that handles this angle. The hand squeezing proceeded quite nicely with no unexpected problems. I opted to squeeze the trailing edge while it was still on the kitchen counter and weighted down, in order to minimize introducing any twist.

After those flush rivets were squeezed, I installed the rest of the pulled rivets along the ribs. The exterior rivets along the inboard and outboard edges were conventional flush rivets and could be squeezed normally. And with that, the left flap was done. The final twist was only 0.2 degrees, which is acceptable. There is some oil-canning on one of the upper skin sections, but that is also not a significant concern.

What's next? Time to finish these same steps for the right flap.

  Sep 03, 2022     Riveting the nose skin of the left flap - (4.0 hours)       Category: Flaps

Resuming work on the left frap meant finishing work on the trailing edge extrusion (VA-140) to prepare it eventually be riveted in. But first, I had to cut the two extrusions to the final sizes, and then counter-sink the holes on both sides to accommodate the dimpled skins, before actually dimpling those two skins of the flap.

Then I started flush riveting the last side of the nose skin of the flap. This step is critical since it finalizes any twist that may be present in the frap. I used a digital level to compare the angles on the two hinge brackets and applied some corrective twist whenever I felt necessary during this riveting. Bucking these rivets also required either using the extremely long special bucking bar, or sticking my hand down inside of the skin to hold the bucking bar (I actually found the latter easier). After that long seam of flush rivets was completed, I finished the rest of the nose rivets using blind rivets.

I then had to set the flap down on a very flat surface so that when the trailing edge extrusions are glued in with VHB adhesive tape, it'll cure without any unintentional twist. I clecoed things down and used some heavy weights to let this all cure overnight.

What's next? After curing is done, I can finish riveting the trailing edge.

  Sep 01, 2022     Countersink inboard nutplates and flaps AEX - (1.0 hour)       Category: Flaps

The last task to wrap up the upper skins section of the left wing was to machine countersink the inboard nutplate holes so that a dimpled skin could fit in them nicely. This was just a matter of using my countersinking cage until my sample coupon could fit into the dimples and sit flush, though it did cut away quite a bit and generate a lot of metal chips. I'll need to get some help from a friend to move this wing onto the storage cart.

Then I started looking at the flaps section to see where I left off while I was blocked on the VA-140 AEX (trailing edge aluminum extrusion). This meant measuring a couple of pieces of VA-140 and trimming them to the initial dimensions specified, to prepare them for finer measurements and trimming.

  Jun 04, 2022     Finish riveting top skin of left flap - (5.5 hours)       Category: Flaps

This log entry is actually a few hours of work over 3 days. Basically, I've now finished all steps on the left flap that I had previously done to the right flap. This means that I've finished flush riveting the row shared by the nose skin and the top skin, and all of the top skin ribs except for the trailing two rows. The next step would be on page 21-09 to finish the trailing two rows and then rivet on the bottom skin, but I don't want to do any of that until I receive the backordered VA-140 trailing edge extrusion.

What's next? I will set both of these partially completed flaps aside and start on another section. I've not heard any word back from Van's Aircraft yet about when to expect the remaining parts, but my order status page still shows that they know I have backordered parts. However, I won't have any time over the next week for plane building since I'll be attending a work event.

  May 31, 2022     Started riveting on left flap - (5.0 hours)       Category: Flaps

After a bit of a break from planebuilding over the weekend, I resumed work today by finishing dimpling the left flap spar and all of the ribs. I then started hand squeezing rivets into the flap hinge brackets and nose rib assemblies. The hand squeezer still seems like my preferred riveter for things when I can use it.

Then I started using the air rivet gun to attach the ribs and brackets to the left flap spar, however I only got about half-way through this part before I had to call it a night because it was getting late.

  May 27, 2022     More right flap riveting and priming the left flap - (6.0 hours)       Category: Flaps

After getting a recommendation from Van's Builder Support to just continue working and deal with the minor dent with body filler prior to painting, I proceeded to finish flush riveting the top skin of the left flap. It was nice seeing that side of the flap looking nearly complete. I decided to pause work on the right flap since the next steps would be assuming that the trailing edge extrusion was already cut and prepared for riveting (but that part is still on backorder).

So, I resumed work on the left flap by disassembling the clecos holding it together. I then dimpled the skins, scuffed with Scotch-Brite pads, and sprayed some primer on them. This time I did remember to mask off the trailing edge of the skins prior to priming, so I didn't need to remove the primer with acetone like I had to on the right flap skins. I then did the machine counter-sinking of the flap hinge brackets where they will later be double-flush riveted. Finally, I scuffed and primed the rest of the ribs and internal parts of the left flap, before temporarily reassembling the pieces with clecos.

What's next? I realized that I had skipped over some dimpling of these left flap parts, so I'll have to check over all of those parts and then proceed with riveting them together. Hopefully I'll have a bit of time this Memorial Day weekend to make some good progress, but I do have some construction work to do out at the hangar as well.

  May 26, 2022     Flush riveting right flap skin - (4 hours)       Category: Flaps

I scuffed up and primed the inside contact areas of the three pieces of the flap skins and then started reassembling them together with clecos. However, I quickly noticed that one of the flap hinge brackets wasn't in the correct place because it wouldn't fit through the hole in the nose skin. Realizing my mistake during yesterday's riveting, I drilled out and reinstalled one bracket and one rib in their correct locations. I remembered to bend the edges of the nose skin using the Cleaveland edge rolling tool, and then reassembled everything.

Then I got my first experience doing flush riveting on the nose skin. After a little bit of practice on some scrap material, I felt ready to tackle the first row of flush rivets. That seemed to be going pretty well almost up to the end of that row, when my rivet set slipped and left a little dent in the nose skin. I'll have to get some second opinions about it, but I'm leaning towards just using some body filler later. Or I could pull that skin off and hammer it flat from the inside. Alternatively, I could order a replacement nose skin ($38 plus shipping).

UPDATE: Vans Builder Support has replied and indicated that the dent is still airworthy and could be safely filled prior to painting. The risk of damage caused by attempting to remove that many rivets perfectly is higher than the reward.

  May 26, 2022     More riveting of stuff to the right flap spar - (1.5 hours)       Category: Flaps

Tonight was a short session that was primarily consumed by getting some familiarity with the pneumatic rivet gun and the offset rivet set. By using them together I was able to get the rivets in the remaining rib of the right flap. I also took the time to drill out the one rivet in the rib of the hinge bracket from last night that I had to install reverse due to clearance issues with the hand squeezer (I actually ended up removing all 3 of the rivets in that rib and setting them all using the rivet gun).

What's next? I think I'll need to get some more practice with the rivet gun before I feel comfortable using it on the skins. I also need to scuff and prime the inside of the skins before I start attaching them for riveting.

  May 24, 2022     Riveting stuff to the right flap spar - (2.5 hours)       Category: Flaps

I continued with the hand squeezing of rivets tonight, first starting with the double-flush rivets that hold the two halves of the flap hinge brackets together. The double-flush technique is an interesting concept, but I wasn't able to get it to be completely flush on the shop-head side of the piece.

I then continued to rivet the ribs, nose ribs, and flap hinge brackets to the flap spar, still using just my hand squeezer. A few of the ribs were a little tricky to get access to, and I had to reverse sides that I put the shop head on for several of the ribs in order to make squeezing easier. Unfortunately, I had to end the night with one of the ribs un-riveted because it was simply undoable with my squeezer due to the proximity to the flap hinge brackets. I suspect they'll be easier to rivet with the pneumatic rivet gun and an offset bit, but I'll have to figure that out tomorrow.

  May 23, 2022     Priming and riveting right flap internals - (4 hours)       Category: Flaps

Today was the first day for priming parts. I've decided to use a light single coat of Rustoleum's self-etching metal primer for all of these parts, based on its convenience and recommendation by others. This primer also has the benefit that it dries in only 10 minutes, so it's very quick to get back to work.

After priming the spar, ribs, nose ribs, and flap hinge brackets, I started using my hand squeezer to set the first rivets on the assemblies used on the right flap. I also got some practice drilling out bad rivets after seeing a handful of them were incorrectly set crooked, smiley, or with a gap. However, I was able to successfully remove and re-squeeze those few rivets without any drama or damage to the pieces. Then I clecoed the parts all back to the spar.

What's next? I have to finish assembling the hardware parts on the flap hinge brackets and then set the special "double-flush" rivets tomorrow. Then I'll probably rivet what I can to the spar.

  May 22, 2022     Dimpling right flap and SB review - (3 hours)       Category: Flaps

With the DRDT2 support table complete, I could finish dimpling the rest of the holes in the right flap skins. I think all holes in the right flap are fully done, and ready for priming.

I decided to take a quick look at the contents of the Service Bulletin packet that was included with the wing kit, just to make sure it didn't affect anything in the flaps. As it turned out, it was for the aileron hinge brackets so I located the section it in the instructions that it seemed to relate to and wrote some annotations so that I wouldn't forget to incorporate it later. I also individually labelled, cut, and lightly deburred some of those SB parts so that I could keep them together for later assembly.

  May 21, 2022     Countersinking the right flap hinge brackets - (2.0 hours)       Category: Flaps

The instructions call for creating the FL-0009 drill jig out of some 1/8" angle aluminum, which I conveniently was able to find an old scrap of at the hangar. After a bit of processing on the band saw, bench grinder, drill press, and belt sander I had a nice drill jig completed.

Once the drill jig was in hand, I used my drill-stop cage tool to countersink the four holes in each of the four flap hinge brackets to just the right depth for a flush rivet. Then a final debur of their rear mating sides.

A package arrived by USPS today from Van's Aircraft with the washers and blind rivets that I reported were missing from my inventory. I reported it on the 12th and it came on the 21st, so that took just 9 days, which isn't that bad. I've filed away those parts into their appropriate bags or jars they were missing from so I can easily find them later.

  May 20, 2022     Dimpling and scuffing right flap - (3.0 hours)       Category: Flaps

I disassembled the rest of the right flap so that I could continue dimpling the rest of the ribs and skins. I was doing as much of the dimpling using my hand squeezer, but I eventually needed my first use of the DRDT2 dimpler in order to reach some of the holes that were too far from the edge of the sheet metal.

After that I started using a scotch brite pad to scuff up all of the ribs and brackets to prepare them for eventually being primed. For the flap spar, I found that a flap disk made from scotch brite pads worked pretty well down its recessed channel.

  May 18, 2022     Drilling and dimpling the right flap - (2.5 hours)       Category: Flaps

I match-drilled the final two places on each of the nose ribs of the right flap. Then I installed a bolt and some washers in the two flap hinge brackets of the right flap and match-drilled the holes that will hold the two bracket pairs together. Then I started disassembling the right flap so I could debur those new holes, and I started on some of the dimpling that I could easily accomplish with my hand squeezer.

What's next? I'll probably need cut and assemble some wood sleds for my DRDT2 dimpler in order to safely dimple the holes in these flap skins soon.

  May 17, 2022     Mock assembly of the right flap - (2.5 hours)       Category: Flaps

I spent a little time disassembling some of the clecos from the left flap so that I could finish match-drilling the last hole in the flap hinge bracket that was too close to the skin to drill. I then deburred the two holes in each of the nose ribs that had been previously match-drilled through the nose skin.

After deciding to make some progress on the right flap, I fetched all of its pieces from my shelf and clecoed all of its parts together. Nothing too eventful, but it went quicker than the left flap since I knew what to expect this time.

What's next? I didn't have time to start on any of its match drilling tonight, but I'll get to that tomorrow and that should bring both flaps to the same state of completion.

  May 16, 2022     Match drilling the left flap nose ribs - (1 hour)       Category: Flaps

This was a short session because I started late tonight. After researching a little more on the edge bending of the nose skin, I decided to wait until after I dimple it to apply the bend using the Cleaveland edge seamer tool. So I proceeded to assemble the nose skin with the rest of the pieces and cleco'ed everything in place. This allowed me to match-drill the two remaining holes in each of the nose ribs.

What's next? Normally, I should also be match-drilling the trailing edge aluminum extrusion (VA-140) before going further, but that is back-ordered still. So I think my next step will be to disassemble these pieces, deburr, prime, and possibly rivet the internal assemblies. Or I could set this aside and start on the right flap...

  May 15, 2022     Left flap ribs, hinge brackets, and cleco assembly - (3 hours)       Category: Flaps

Reading online, others had removed the spare tab off the flap ribs by using either metal snips or a dremel cutoff disk. I ended up using metal snips, and then a needle file to smooth off the cut surface.

I then assembled all of these flap ribs to the flap spar and attach the upper and lower skins in place using clecos, just so that some additional match drilling could be done. I fitted the appropriate AN-bolt through the flap hinges to align them, clamped them together, and match-drilled through 3 of the 4 holes without problem (I'll have to do the last 1 hole in each hinge after I remove those pieces off the spar again, due to clearance issues with my drill).

Unfortunately, one of the parts that was backordered when my wing kit shipped was the triangular aluminum extrusion VA-140 used on the trailing edges of these flaps. So I'll have to skip over some of the steps and come back to them later.

What's next? I need to next decide how I intend to bend the edges of the nose skin, before I can attach it and do more match drilling. Cleaveland Tools included an edge/seaming tool, but that might not be the best thing to use here. Other people talked about using a piece of wood with a slot cut in it. I'll have to do some more research. But it's nice to see how rigid this flap is after just a few clecos holding things together.

  May 14, 2022     Prepping left flap ribs - (3.5 hours)       Category: Flaps

I finished up page 21-02 and started working on page 21-03. This involved buffing the edges of the flap nose ribs with my Scotch-brite wheel to make the tabs on the leading edge contour smoother. Then there was some match drilling and final drilling of the "Inboard Rod End Rib Subassembly" and "Outboard Rod End Rib Subassembly". The "Left Hinge Pair Rib Subassembly" (and Right) involved more clecos and match drilling.

Throughout the last couple days, I've been trying to focus on first building just the left side flap and just using parts ending in "-L", but I started to realize that the directions were actually needing me to use parts that had a "-R" suffix even on the left side. So this meant pulling out more of the parts that I had been setting aside for later and deburring/prepping them so that I would have all of the needed parts for the left flap. This just means that I'll have less prep-work to do later when I start on the right flap.

Moving onto a new part: the main ribs for the flap. I started by removing their blue plastic and labeling them, as usual. Then used pliers to eliminate the "pucker" in the edge cutouts, caused by incomplete bending at the factory.

What's next? The next step tomorrow will be to cut off an extra tab on these ribs, but I think I will need to use a Dremel cut-off wheel since my bandsaw wouldn't be able to cut just one side of it. I'll have to do some research to see what other people do here.

  May 13, 2022     Flap hinge brackets - (2.5 hours)       Category: Flaps

I spent a little bit of time folding up the packing paper left over from the shipment crates, so the floor of my garage is visible again. Back to page 21-02... I also finished cutting out the wing cradles and the flap cradles from the leftover plywood from the crates. I then marked, drilled, and deburred 4 holes along the flanges of the four FL-1007L (flap hinge bracket).

  May 12, 2022     Wing kit inventory complete, starting on the flaps - (3 hours)       Category: Flaps

Inventory of the remaining items in the wing kit is complete. No other missing items were encountered (besides the backordered ones and the washers I mentioned yesterday). All of the kit items were organized on my new shelves grouped by letter prefix (A, FL, W, T, other). I'm using the two shelves next to each other so that the long items can span across them. I'm planning on leaving the wing spars, the uncut tubes, and uncut J-channel in the long crate for now. The other crate has been emptied and I've stacked the skins upright against the garage wall for now.

I've decided to skip ahead and start work on the flaps (section 21) since it has fewer components and they are easier/cheaper to replace if I make any mistakes, since this will be my first time working on anything. I decided to warm up by trying out the scotch-brite wheel to deburr the edges of the four FL-1007-L pieces, which seemed to work well. I also ended up rearranging my workshop by moving around the worktables so the powertools could be against a wall--I think that'll help reduce the dust going into the rest of the house.

I started cutting out the cradles that were drawn on the lid of one of the crates with my jigsaw, but I'll need to finish that tomorrow when it's not so late and I can make more noise.