7 Wing Tip install

bret · #1 01-13-2011, 02:07 PM

After Hrs of reading through search I want to make sure I am installing my tips correctly. Please give me your experience with this. So... ailerons set to neutral with tooling holes in rib and TE of aileron, Jig in bell crank, set pushrod length, hold aileron in neutral position with jig, remove alignment tool, prep tip for fit, (Align tip T.E. with aileron T.E.) I have heard of some who split the TE of tip to align, and others who say flaps all the way up and align ailerons and tip with flap, and others who say just wait till they are mounted on fuse. Please...the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of these methods. And did you add stiffeners to the inside of tip. Thanks.

Brantel · #2 01-13-2011, 02:12 PM

Here is what I did and it worked for me...you may get different results...

Mine were installed after the wings were on the fuse.

I put the flaps all the way up till the bottom of the flap skin contacted the fuse on both sides...I then aligned the ailerons with the flaps...and then I used the ailerons as a guide for the wing tip when I drilled it to the wing.

The wingtip can be manipulated more than you might think by jamming it up into the wing leading edge really well and shifting it around. Make it go where you want it and then drill it on while holding it where you want it.

I held and drilled mine by myself so it can be done.

I would only split the trailing edge if I had to. I did not use any additional bracing inside my wingtips. I am sure it does not hurt anything but I have found no reason to do so.

bret · #3 01-13-2011, 02:24 PM

Hum, So do you remember if the aileron was in the rib toolling hole method of alignment with this method? or slightly up to match the flaps in the full up position.

dhall_polo · #4 01-13-2011, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brantel

I put the flaps all the way up till the bottom of the flap skin contacted the fuse on both sides...I then aligned the ailerons with the flaps

Hmm. The flap skin touching the fuse does not define the neutral position. It's close but most seem to need to joggle the flap to achieve neutral.

The tooling hole defines neutral. So lock the aileron in neutral by whatever method, then check your tips. If there's some slight misalignment, you can 'encourage' the right fit by drilling and riveting the wingtip rib such that it helps lock the alignment. If it's way off, then maybe splitting the edge is your last resort. In my case, the tips were pretty much spot on. On one tip, I did redrill the tip rib to help lift up the edge slightly. On both tips, some sanding and shaping was necessary to fix length and remove excess material.

Bavafa · #5 01-13-2011, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhall_polo

Hmm. The flap skin touching the fuse does not define the neutral position. It's close but most seem to need to joggle the flap to achieve neutral.

The tooling hole defines neutral. So lock the aileron in neutral by whatever method, then check your tips. If there's some slight misalignment, you can 'encourage' the right fit by drilling and riveting the wingtip rib such that it helps lock the alignment. If it's way off, then maybe splitting the edge is your last resort. In my case, the tips were pretty much spot on. On one tip, I did redrill the tip rib to help lift up the edge slightly. On both tips, some sanding and shaping was necessary to fix length and remove excess material.

Agreed completely. The aileron locked in the tooling holes will set the position for both flaps and wingtip. I have heard from a number of folks that miss alignment of wingtips to the aileron has little affect (wing heaviness) but then it does not look go and I suppose not a good sign of craftsmanship.

RV7Guy · #6 01-13-2011, 03:17 PM

On the left side of the opening page scroll down to the "articles" section. I put together a 2 part series on installing the wing tips and reinforcing them.

I've got several emails from people who have used this method and were successful.

"Work smarter, not harder."

Sig600 · #7 01-13-2011, 03:28 PM

I used the tooling holes per the plans to set the neuteral position of the ailerons, and am using that position to set up the flaps.

I breifly held the tips up just to see how it looked and the trailing edge of the tips doesn't QUITE line up. I'll manipulate the tips to get them as close as I can, but proper control rigging is more important to me than a perfect match. On the ground it probably won't matter much unless you're planning on using a control lock in such a manner that you want it to be visually perfect.

bret · #8 01-13-2011, 03:48 PM

Ok thanks,

Brantel · #9 01-13-2011, 04:06 PM

As luck would have it, doing it my way, the tooling holes lined right up...there is almost always more than one way to skin a cat....

Airhead · #10 01-13-2011, 05:12 PM

Bret,

I did mine in the wing cradles, exactly as you have suggested (seems to me this is much easier than after wing mounting). Be sure though (as others have suggested) that you get a good fit into the leading edge, including filing or sanding (I used a file) to get a flush fit between the surface of the wing skin, and the FG tip, if you plan to do this. What I found was that the position of the TE can be moved more than I initially thought by rotating the tip at the leading edge and filing small amounts to get a good looking fit into the wing LE. At first I thought I was going to need to split the TE as you mentioned, but the more I played with the leading edge, I got it to a perfect match with the aileron TE without splitting it. Also, I found that the final alignment at the TE was not initiallly fully evident until I had drilled a few matching holes with the skin and put in clecos, ie, pulling the FG lip tight against the aluminum skin all around can slightly shift the alignment. Not to worry, mix up some good epoxy and fill holes and redrill as necessary. If you are planning screws, the nut plates do the actual holding, so having a portion of the holes slightly corrected (oblong) neither shows nor matters structurally. It took me a couple of iterations of this to achieve a perfect TE alignment.

One more thing, on mine, the tip TE extended aft past the aileron TE by about 3/16". I trimmed this off with a belt sander. There was still plenty of "meat" left in the tip...enough that I don't feel additional reinforcement is necessary, but would be simple if desired.