Van's Air Force
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Flap hinge
- Thread starter rwarre
- Start date
RV-6 flap/aileron alignment.
Randy,
Without having seen your project but after building several RV-3, 4 and 6's, I would suggest looking back to your aileron hinge mount vertical placement. Place the airfoil template over the wing to verify the aileron position.
The ailerons and flaps should both be inline with the upper and lower main wing skins. If the aileron is properly positioned, then move the flap brace (W-621) up or down on the rear spar so that the aileron, flap and their trailing edges aligned. Good luck!
Chuck Brietigam
RV-6XXL
Randy,
Without having seen your project but after building several RV-3, 4 and 6's, I would suggest looking back to your aileron hinge mount vertical placement. Place the airfoil template over the wing to verify the aileron position.
The ailerons and flaps should both be inline with the upper and lower main wing skins. If the aileron is properly positioned, then move the flap brace (W-621) up or down on the rear spar so that the aileron, flap and their trailing edges aligned. Good luck!
Chuck Brietigam
RV-6XXL
Scott Hersha
Well Known Member
I would rather have a slightly larger gap with the skin on the bottom of the wing than to have my trailing edges not line up. If you need to make sure you have rivet margin with the hinge material, you can use a hinge section with a wider flange. I did that on one of my builds. Like CTB says, make sure your ailerons are aligned properly as called out in the plans. Moving the outboard aileron bracket up or down is one of the first ways to address a heavy wing, but it shouldn’t affect where your trailing edge ends up. I did that on my RV6, and it works for correcting the heavy wing.
I would try the wider hinge section for correcting aileron/flap alignment. You only need the wider one on one side.
I would try the wider hinge section for correcting aileron/flap alignment. You only need the wider one on one side.
fixnflyguy
Well Known Member
I had similar issue on my -4
When I built my -4, I had the same issue you describe. Because the -4 and the -6 are "hand built", its easy to end up with this scenario to some degree. As long as you have the wings/ailerons/flaps in fair and aligned the mismatch can be corrected a couple ways. I have seen some folks use flanging pliers to bend the flap overhang skin up closer to the fuselage skin with acceptable results, but in my case, I trimmed the overhang back to the rib and fabricated a joggled piece of .032" that is held in place by the inboard rib row of rivets. I made the transition from the flap skin to matching the fuselage in a more "elegant" way than bending it into place. I don't have a picture handy, but I think you can understand what I did. It may be your best solution.
When I built my -4, I had the same issue you describe. Because the -4 and the -6 are "hand built", its easy to end up with this scenario to some degree. As long as you have the wings/ailerons/flaps in fair and aligned the mismatch can be corrected a couple ways. I have seen some folks use flanging pliers to bend the flap overhang skin up closer to the fuselage skin with acceptable results, but in my case, I trimmed the overhang back to the rib and fabricated a joggled piece of .032" that is held in place by the inboard rib row of rivets. I made the transition from the flap skin to matching the fuselage in a more "elegant" way than bending it into place. I don't have a picture handy, but I think you can understand what I did. It may be your best solution.
WingsOnWheels
Well Known Member
I may not totally understand where you have the gap, but if you are talking about the gap between the aft edge of the bottom wing skin to the forward edge of the bottom flap skin, 0.25 doesn't seem too bad. If you can't get proper edge distance, you can pick up a slightly wider piano hinge to make up the difference. Of course, verify everything else is correct before implementing a fix here.
