Posted Sunday, May 10, 2015 @ 07:49 AM
Re-fitting the ailerons is a swine of a job when the wing is the correct way up and on the airplane, so I took the opportunity of fitting them while the wing was detached and upside-down. It still wasn't easy but they are a lot more accessible when you can illuminate them properly and gravity is on your side.
We have not been able to obtain the original short 5mm bolts with the correct shank length so instead we've used cut-down Allen screws or 'cap-screws'. There is very little working space in the cutouts in the ailerons, so it's handy to use contact adhesive to hold the nut in the spanner or wrench. Also it's useful to have an Allen key with a shortened head. This gives you a little more working space. The long screwdriver is used as a probe and to hold things in place when you can't get more than one finger in there -- which is most of the time!
The bolts with tapers ground on to their ends are used to align the holes in the aileron brackets with the hinge bearings. After all three 'bullets' are in place, they are swapped one at a time for the proper bolts. I found it necessary to have several bolts, cut to slightly different lengths, because there is very little room at the head end. Starting with the longest, I tried shorter and shorter bolts until I found one that would just fit.
I hope that's helpful to anybody else attempting this job.
It works the same when your wing is the right way up, only you're lying on your back, with one foot of clearance under the wing, in poor light, and with parts repeatedly falling on to your face :-))
Yours, Bob
[Edit by Bob Grimstead on Wednesday, October 28, 2015 @ 01:02 AM]
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Flying and displaying Fournier RF4Ds VH-HDO and G-AWGN, building replica RF6B G-RFGB and custodian of RF6B prototype F-BPXV