Well, once again my schedule got a bit crazy this last week. This time it was helping out with a project for my son at school, and no matter what my time for my family comes first (yes, even before airplane time.
). So anyway, back to the build. We're ready now to start preparing the ailerons for attaching.
The first thing to do is locate both of the aileron stock for this step. As noted in picture #1 we have both of the ailerons that we labeled back when we inventoried the kit before we started. I mention it here because the stock that we will use for the elevator in later steps could be mistaken for the ailerons if you're not careful. The elevator stock is roughly the same size, but it's not as long as the ailerons, and this is why we labeled everything so that we wouldn't mistake later on. A small side note here, I was a little disappointed with the aileron stock provided in the kit. What I didn't like was that the density of the wood in the aileron stock was drastically different in the two pieces we have provided in the kit. While it shouldn't affect anything in the final build I would prefer if the density of the wood had been closer to each other.
Here is another good point to label your pieces “L” and “R”. Just like before, it's easy to mix them up which could cause problems later on. Now that we have to two labeled we need to measure in 1-3/8” from the inside edge of each aileron and mark this spot (picture #2. This is where we are going to drill for the torque rods to attach to the aileron. Once we have the spot marked we are going to use a 3/32” drill bit to drill out the hole for the torque rod to sit in. Before you drill it helps to mark the drill bit 5/8” up the drill bit, I used a Sharpie® marker to mark the drill bit at this point. This is how deep we want to drill this hole. It's important to mark this because if we drill too deep the drill bit will come out the sides of the aileron. While we want to avoid this happening, if it does happen don't panic because it's fairly easy to fix later on (we can fill the hole with balsa filler when it comes time to sand the plane). Now that the bit is marked we'll go ahead and drill out the hole for the torque rods (picture #3).
The torque rods will sit recessed into the ailerons when they are installed, so we're going to have to dig out a channel for rods to sit in. The instructions that come with the plane tell us to use a hobby knife to dig this out. While it's possible to do this, I think it's a very ugly way to accomplish this task and there is definitely a better way to do it. You'll need to get a piece of brass fuel tubing (picture #4), and then you'll need to sharpen the edge on one end. Use a hobby knife to “shave” the inside of the tubing (picture #5). This will make a very sharp edge on the end of the tubing (picture #6). Continue shaving the inside of the tubing until it's sharp enough to easily cut through balsa (test on a scrap piece of balsa before using it to cut the aileron). After you have the tubing sharpened we'll use that to cut a groove into the aileron from the edge of the aileron to the hole that we cut for the torque rod. Don't try to cut the groove all at one time. Cut a small groove at first, and then continue to cut a little bit at a time until the groove is deep enough for the torque rod to completely fit inside the groove (pictures #7, #8, #9, & #10). Place the aileron on torque rod on the plane to test the fit. The aileron should fit like in pictures #11 & #12. Take your time and continue to work the groove until you have a good fit of the torque rod. Trust me, this is an important step in that it will make a huge difference in the way that the ailerons will move when they are installed on the plane. A good fit here will help ensure that the ailerons move smoothly and without any binding, so take your time.
Pictures
1. 2 ailerons pieces as labeled when we inventoried the kit.
2. Measuring where to drill for the torque rods.
3. Drilling the ailerons for the torque rods.
4. Brass tubing to be used to cut groove.
5. Using a hobby knife to sharpen the brass tubing.
6. The sharpened brass tubing.
7. Starting the groove with the sharpened tubing.
8. Cutting the groove.
9. Continuing the cut.
10. The complete cut.
11. Test fitting the aileron.
12. Ensure that the torque rod fits totally inside the groove.
Until next time
Ken