Van's RV-9A in Aurora

The Big Picture

The Big Picture
Flying! 8/28/2011

Friday, April 3, 2009

5.9 hrs, 56 rivets
Deburred right aileron/flap fairings and the matching holes on the right spar/skin. That's a bunch of holes to deburr and glad to have it out of the way.

Today was right wing rear spar finish up.

Riveted the aileron attach bracket assemblies, and then riveted to the rear spar. Used the squeezer where possible, and then bucked the remainder.




Riveted inboard and outboard flap attach brackets to rear spar. These are easy rivets to deal with. I wish they were all this easy.




Position and match drill middle flap bracket. This one was dead on with the factory holes. It was a piece of cake.

Disassembled, deburred, primed and installed the middle flap bracket.




Match drilled, deburred, countersunk, and primed all 925B and C flap attach bracket angles. That included installing and removing the bottom skins.

The flap attach bracket work definitely requires a 90 degree drill bit. I bought the Brown Tool extension for threaded bits. This does get the job done. But you spend a bunch of time swapping drill bits and other accessories during this task. I kept thinking it would be nice if I had another drill (or two). In retrospect, it's worth the money to buy the 90 degree drill motor. Any pain from parting with the money will fade by the time you're done with the flap attach brackets. The other drill motor that would be nice is one of those mini palm drills. Sometimes the standard drill is just too long to fit into tight spaces.