Yesterday I continued working on covering the ailerons as well as ensuring a fit between the rudder and elevator.
Prior to fitting the elevator and rudder I needed to V the ruder and elevator so that when hinged to the tail of the fuselage side to side movement of the rudder would be possible as well as up and down movement of the elevator. To ensure the elevator has enough down movement I had to sand the top of the elevator at an angle slopping from leading to trailing edge, seen below.
I finished the night by covering the ailerons. This took a quite a bit of time. I was working on the aircraft for about 2.5 hrs this day.
I measured out enough covering to go around the entire aileron in one piece. In this case it worked out to 5″ wide. I started by ironing a strip down the one side of the aileron and wrapping it around the flat trailing edge, ironing it down as well. Then folding the covering around and pulling tight I ironed it to the one side of the aileron. I subsequently started pulling it around the leading formed edge tacking it down.
I then pulled it tight across the other side and tacked it down near the edges and used a heat gun to shrink the covering to the other side as using the iron in this case would not work and cause plenty of wrinkles and havoc! Once I did what I could with the heat gun I used the iron to shrink up any loose spots and ensure the covering was adhered to the surface of the aileron.
This process was repeated for the other aileron. Since the covering once it cools may slacken in places I haven’t cut the slots for the hinges yet and will have to inspect at the beginning of the next session.
That concluded another building session at Peters. Prior to heading home I visited for a while as its going to be Friday at the earliest that I get to head over again to continue working on the aircraft. Covering is a slow, but therapeutic, process to get it done at least somewhat decently I am hoping :). The therapy part is in it takes my mind off work and other things for that time, lol. Part of why I enjoy building, plus it keeps me in the hobby throughout the off season.