flaps or ailerons first?

Group:

Having successfuly bolted my wings on (finally!) I am in the process of rigging the ailerons and flaps.

What is the prefered sequence....Should I get the flaps all situated and rigged to the exension mechanism using the shipping crate airfoil templates, then rig the aileron position to the flaps, or should I do the reverse. Rig the ailerons with the airfoil templates and then set the flaps to the ailerons.

Does it matter which sequence is used, provided you use the airfoil template to rig whatever you are rigging first?

Thanks gang.

Keep the people of the Gulf Coast in your prayers....

Regards,

Jeff,
I did the ailerons first working with the templates. Then moved to the flaps.

You'll find that you will have to trim a small amount of the root end of the flap for a good fit to the fuselage and it's alot easier if you can use the aileron as a flap up gage. (ask me how I know dat)
Rich 721ET

Ailerons First

Use the airfoil template of course but also fine tune the ailerons to align with the trailing edge of the wingtip and continue the rigging of the flaps to maintain a perfectly straight line of all three trailing edge components to the fuselage.

Bob Axsom

painless said:

Group:.................... I am in the process of rigging the ailerons and flaps........................ prefered sequence....Does it matter which sequence is used...................

Click to expand...

Jeff,

Judgement call. I suppose either sequence of assembly will work. I installed the flaps first (which was a lot more work than installing the ailerons) reasoning that when I rigged the ailerons, it would be easier to sight and split the difference relative to the aileron trailing edge and the trailing edges of the (installed) wingtips and flaps. In the end, and after considerable adjustment and readjustment, both ailerons ended up being aligned evenly with the retracted flaps yet both ailerons dip approximately 1/4" lower than the trailing edge of the wingtips. Oh well, in my experience, rare is the 6 or 6A that has all those trailing edges lined up perfectly when the flaps are retracted and the ailerons neutralized.

Rick

I aligned the ailerons to the holes in the tip rib (per drawing ???), with the alignment templates holding the bellcrank in place, then fit the tip to that (they lined up perfectly). Once the wings were installed, I lined up the flaps to the aileron, and everything fits in a nice straight line. I don't know how I would have found a reference line if I did the flaps first.

Paul Dye

Thanks for all the input folks. One thing that I did not mention is that I have yet to fit my wingtips. My reasoning was that I wanted to get the ailerons and flaps all set and lined up with each other, and then I would fit the tips to the orientation of the flaps/ ailerons.

Seems to me that if I get the flaps set first, they will be a bit more stable to work with than haveing to pin the ailerons somehow to set the flaps to them.

It's beginning to sound as if I am trying to engineer this step too much. Just "GIT 'ER DUN" for cryin' out loud!

Regards,

As said earlier, rig the ailerons first and then leave the jigs in place while you work on the flaps. You can even tape some straight edges across the ailerons and flaps to help hold them in a perfectly straight alignment.
In some cases, the bottom flap skins do not sit flat to the bottom of the fuselage. I have seen a couple of ways to handle this: bend them to fit or trim them parallel to the fuselage like you do the upper skin of the flap. (I think the second method looks much better.)
After the ailerons and flaps are installed and rigged, you can fit the wing tips and get them aligned with the trailing edges of the ailerons. You'll be surprised how much adjustment you will have in fitting the tips. When you do this, make sure you have the ailerons set in their neutral positions and held in place so they don't move during the fitting process.
Good luck.

Not to hijack this thread but it is along the same lines as a question I have. I bought a partially assembled RV-6a. Wings were built and all control surfaces installed. I now have the wings attached to the plane. I can not find anything in the documentation on how to align the ailerons. I see some used the wing template, which I do not have and mention of aligning the ailerons to some holes in the tip rib? Then mention somewhere about use of tooling holes? Can someone point me to the correct drawing or the correct procedure? Thanks! Ken

With the wing tips removed and set aside, look at the wing outboard ribs. The nose rib and large wing rib will each have two small "tooling" holes that were used by the factory in fabricating the ribs. The aileron ribs also have these holes.

Draw a straight line through the centers of all these holes and everything is aligned correctly. You can also place a long wood or steel rod into each of the tooling holes so that each rod gets inserted into the next inboard rib's tooling hole. This allowed you to lay a long straight edge along the rods to help in positioning and aligning the aileron.

Based on -8

If the -6 has the tooling holes, you could use a piece of hardware store aluminum bar, I used 1 1/4x1/8. Draw a centreline on the bar then drill to match the tooling holes and bolt in place. The aileron is held by a bolt/nut fastened to the bar the threads of which extend into the end of the aileron. Locate this bolt for a snug (slip) fit near the trailing edge of the aileron. This firmly held the aileron in position while the flap was rigged to it.

It is possible that the previous builder had drilled out the tooling holes for snap bushings (for wiring). I had also done this but managed to make a sandwich of washers, one of which fit inside the enlarged hole and two larger washers to clamp the bolt washer assembly into the rib.

With the 1/8 bar, I was able to leave it in place while the tip was fitted. My tips were out of alignment by about 1/4" on one side and 3/4 on the other. I split the trailing edges of the tips and clamped them in the correct position with a generous strip of milled glass / epoxy paste in the trailing edge. Keep the clamps very close to the trailing edge or you can make it a bit concave, don't ask how I know....

You may have to release and re-rivet the tip trailing edge rib if the -6 has one. Since most of the old holes won't line up, I just drilled new holes in the bottom and filled the old ones.

Screw ups

FYI, I have seen this problem before. #1 Install wings to the plane. "Work from the inside out". #2 Install and set flaps in the up position. #3 Install and set ailerons. #4 Install wing tips to ends of wings. If you do not do this in this order your wings tips will never align with the ailerons. What happens when this is not done in this order is guys will end up cutting and splitting the end of the wing tips re-glassing to match the aileron alignment. N548JH

Perfect! I see now... Thank you so very much for the help! Ken