My bad idea of the day - when preparing the nose ribs for the -9 flaps, if you see that the leading flange bends (the little tabs) aren't quite right and will cause interference with the skin, don't hit the flanges on the scotch brite wheel like you've done for all of the other leading edge ribs. I did, only to have it dawn on me too late that the material of these ribs is so thin that taking the bump from the bend out essentially reduces the bend to paper thin nothingness. Trying to take the knife edge I created off with a file just made matters worse - basically took huge chunks out of the flanges. I could file them back to get to the thicker material, but that probably makes them half their original width, so I'm not sure they do much at that point. Granted, I'm not sure they do much anyway. I've emailed Van's, but instead of ordering 6 new ribs for this "learning" flap, I'm wondering if there's any reason not to just cut off the leading edge flanges like so many other manufacturers seem to do (like in the pic). Just another bad idea?
Bottom line, if you run into an issue with these nose rib flanges, just take pliers to them and redo the bend. Don't try to knock any material off like you would with other, thicker ribs.
Bottom line, if you run into an issue with these nose rib flanges, just take pliers to them and redo the bend. Don't try to knock any material off like you would with other, thicker ribs.
