Began assembly of flaps

October 7, 2011 – Not a bad way to start a long weekend. I started riveting on the flaps.

I began by installing the doublers for the flap control rods on the inboard ribs. I also installed the nutplate for the rod end. The plans call for a flush rivet for the side that does not go through the doubler. I didn’t see the sense in removing material there, so I just used a regular rivet.

I also installed the corresponding angles onto the inboard ends of the spars.

I then placed the ribs (except for the end ribs) in place on the lower skins. I installed the rivets in the aft ends of the ribs attaching them to the faux spar of the lower skin. On the first flap I installed the rivets from the aft end. Didn’t really like the result, so on the next flap I installed the rivets from the rib side. Much better result. I used a squeezer in both cases.

I then riveted the ribs to the lower skin.

Once both lower skins were done, I started on the right flap by sliding the lower skin into place in the upper skin, then I riveted the two skins together along the row on the bottom where they overlap. The first picture below shows the two skins “exploded” to show their relative positions. The second picture shows them nested in place.