Wings...Drilling Ribs, Aileron Push Pull Tubes, Flap assembly

08/04 - 08/09/03 - First off, Brown Aviation replaced the bad automatic center punch I was complaining about last week...thanks, Brown!

This past Monday, I finished drilling & deburring the ribs top and bottom on the right wing and today I completed the left wing...LOTS of drilling and deburring here!  I'm still very glad I am NOT building something like an RV simply because of all the punching, drilling, drilling, deburring you have to do.

After I finished the ribs, I riveted ends into the aileron push pull tubes (these are threaded onto a rod-eye at installation time) then installed the main push pull tube in the left wing.  I also assembled and installed the flap lever assembly, cable retainers and the flap teleflex cable attached to the lever assembly and the cable which gets installed in the left wing.

Following are a few photos of today's work, starting with showing the main aileron push pull tube in the left wing:

Next is the flap lever assembly after installation:

Rans provides a nice cloth closeout boot for the lever assembly too:

Here's the lever-attached flap teleflex cable after routing and installation:

Locating and installing the forward cable retainer: (note that I got into an extended conversation with my neighbor about this time and forgot to shoot the finished job...trust me, it's done)

The last two photos are WHY I stopped when I did today.  I have a question about which way to route the cable inside the wing (forward of the next-interior rib channel or behind) and will await word from Ed at Rans before continuing.  I want to know, because it appears that I would have JUST ENOUGH cable if I route ahead and PLENTY if I route behind, but routing behind makes things kind of cramped when I go trying to maneuver the cabling inside the wing out of the way for covering.  I'm sure Ed will set me straight, if not some other builder who sees this even before!

Here's the cabling routed ahead of the aft rib channel:

And behind the aft rib channel:

My gut feeling is the cable should be routed AHEAD, so that probably means it really goes BEHIND that rib channel!  We'll see...

More updates soon...

Last Update: 08/09/2003