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Okay, am I the only one who read the directions and said, "Now that sucks"!?! The directions start off with the statement of "The flaps are the easiest of all the control surfaces to construct", and it goes south from there. They warn about making twisted components and in the RV8OR it confirms that. I dunno, I had no difficulty and if you do it my way, you should have good results too!

You will need to make this nifty little bucking bar seen sitting on the spar. It is just the ticket for those top skin to spar rivets!



Once everything is match drilled and primed, rivet all the bracketry for the inboard control stuff onto the inboard rib and the spar.



Once that stuff is riveted, rivet the lower skin's "virtual spar" to the inboard ribs.



From here on out, it is one rivet at a time beginning with the top skin to ribs, then the bottome skin to ribs. I chose to do the top skin first because if there was any buckling to happen, it would occur on the bottom with this sequence.

Then it was time to do the spar to skin stuff. I did the top, then the bottom again for the same reason. Finally you pull the blind rivets on the leading edge of the spar. Getting the riveter in there can be a treat, but you need to bend te skin away in order to accomodate the rivet puller.

Hope this helps!

CJ

looking good cj!

Congrats on finishing another part of your project.

Let me know when you'll need a hand riveting on the bottom skins.

Hah, you kids have it sooooo easy. Why, back in my day we didn't have our holes drilled in the flaps for us! We had to measure and drill our own holes. Calling what I got from Van's an aircraft kit is like calling a log a furniture kit.

Sorry, saw that quote on another forum and have been waiting all week to use it!

Scott, that is a good one! ...a log a furniture kit!

Dave, THANKS! I am very pleased with them! I will be sure to have you over soon!!!

Likewise, lemme know when you need some help.

CJ

Very timely CJ. Hopefully I w ill be gettign to these before to much longer. Thanks for the info!

captain_john wrote:Okay, am I the only one who read the directions and said, "Now that sucks"!?! The directions start off with the statement of "The flaps are the easiest of all the control surfaces to construct", and it goes south from there. CJ

"The flaps are the easiest of all the control surfaces to construct" That is just a warped statement in my opinion! I would rather build two more ailerons!

These things seem to take forever. Maybe it is just because of that statement I was expecting them to be easy. I guess they aren;t that hard but I wouldn;t call them easy.

Thanks for the post CJ I plan on using your suggestions.

John, you are welcome.

They are pretty easy. When compared to the ails, the riveting is easier, there is no counterweight, the trailing edge is already bent and the hinge is much more simple to do.

The design is a good one. I enjoyed the build process. I think you will too.

Have fun and feel free to ask questions.

CJ

I was looking for this answer in the plans, and did not see it...

How big a hole is drilled for the K1000-4 platenut? I drilled it to #10 last night, and that doesn't seem quite big enough...need an answer on this one quickly...it's almost time to head home to work on this part, and I can get the drill bit from work before I leave...

How is this for fast?

1/4"

That is a 1/4" x 28 (AN-4) fastener. It has a 1/4' Clearance hole

POW!

CJ

I got the data from Brother Checkoway, buy you can always print out a handy cheat sheet from my web site. It, along with a few other goodies can be found on my Tips and Resources page.

http://www.rv7factory.com/files/drill_r ... _sheet.pdf

Thanks for the quick replies guys!!

Oh, and BTW Brad, I do have the chart printed off your website. The only part that doesn't work for me, is my brain forgetting that I have it... I could've answered this question last night, had I remembered...

svanarts wrote:Hah, you kids have it sooooo easy. Why, back in my day we didn't have our holes drilled in the flaps for us! We had to measure and drill our own holes. Calling what I got from Van's an aircraft kit is like calling a log a furniture kit.

aircraft kit? What is this kit thing that you speak of??


^5 john. Keep the pics coming. I like watching your build as it progresses.

I finished my left flap last night. I used a cross between Vans/Dan's/CJ's method. It turned out great, nice and straight!

Here's the bucking bar that I used to solo shoot the top skin row of rivets-


And my finished left flap-



On to the right side!

Wind must be blowing in the same direction keeping you on the straight and narrow , you're making good progress.