Rear - Operational Wing

Fletch

The following steps are how to prepare the wing for a movable flap. I followed Andy Bujtas examples on how to make a operational wing flap.

Many things need to be modified to make this wing "operational".

In the following steps you will see the many problems I had with modifying the wing part.

There is to much material in the area of the flap, I want to cut and modify the angle of the wings flap mounting part.

I drew a line across the back wing base to mark my cut

To get a straight line at an angle, I built a simple fence for my circular saw (with a board for to sit on - because of the curve of the wing the saw would not sit level)
This is how the wing base looked, cut at an angle, before I fiber glassed it.
Here you can see I have glassed in two layers
Here is a shot after it has been sanded and cleaned up
Next step, looking at the wing in it's normal standing position. This photos shows how the end of the wing rolls down - I need to build this area back up with fiber glass.
In this photo the fiber glass has been added an is now an extension of the wings top with no roll.

 

The photos below show the wing has a dip in the center (top) of the wing (5/16")... more fiber glass will added
Before
After
To mount the flap into the wing I used found this 3/8" ID sleeve that fits the 3/* stainless steel rod perfectly.
You can see that the stainless rod will fit in nice, it has a good length.
The only problem is that it has to be installed at a precise angle of the flaps stainless steel rod. To archive this I rounded out the hole a little larger, then I place this sleeve "on" the flap's rod, then placed bondo around the sleeve and inserted the sleeve and flap assembly into this hole. This forced the sleeve to set up with the flaps alignment.

This is the layout of the actuator and leavers, I wanted to make one last check fit before cutting open the bottom of the wing. I will use the bottom wing section as my mounting plate. I also want to install this plate back with as few of (visible) screws as possible.
To insure a straight line I used a Saws-all and just laid the blade down (on the line) and it did not kick back and left a nice straight cut... this worked perfectly.
This is a shot of the bottom of the wing with the section cut out. In this photo you can see that I am starting to build up (fibber glass) the outside wall - more details to follow.
This is the bottom wing section cut out and I started to mount my mounting studs and also I added (and fiber glassed in) a piece of steel to form a lip to mount this bottom plate back to the wing (with less visible screws).

With this view you can see the steel lip that I am forming. I hope to have this insert into the wing and with this design I will not need to have any mounting screws on this edge for support... well at least that the design idea.

 

At this stage I received this recommendations from Andy:

1. I see you are cutting out the bottom of the wing to open up to the inside. That is good since the bulge should be on the underside - not only for appearance, but for aerodynamics as well. The bulge on the bottom should help to create some down force.

2. Now that you've opened the wing up, I'd make a cardboard template on how you want to arrange the mechanism inside. Mark and cut all the bolt and shaft holes in this template and lay it on the inside of the wing cover. Mark on the inside of the wing cover the location of these holes.

3. I'd use a 22 gauge sheet metal plate and mark the template on it and weld the bolts to this plate. I'd also drill some holes in various places around the plate to allow the bondo (or whatever you will use to bond the plate to the inside of the wing cover) to squeeze through them to "lock" the plate in place.

4. Bond the plate to the inside of the wing cover. You might also want to glass it in as well - being careful not to glass the bolts or studs.

5. Drill 4 #10 or 1/4 holes in the wing cover (at the corners) for flat head socket (Allen) screws. And countersink the holes. Then make 4 tabs from 1/8 x 3/4 x 1.5 inch long flat stock. Drill and tap one end of each tab for the bolts, and drill a 3/8 hole at the other end for the bondo. These tabs will be anchored into the main wing body to support the lower wing cover/flap mechanism assembly.

You've probably already designed it this way, but I was just adding to it just in case.

Andy

 

Now that I have the bottom is cut out, I need to clean up the edge (blue arrow). This edge is going to be the mounting surface for the actuator plate. I wanted this edge to be perfectly flat (and straight). I used a dremel tool to "try" and get a flat surface... but I came up with this better idea.

To achieve the perfect flat edge, I decide to use a router. I clamped down a 1/4" board to the bottom of the wing and table (adding in a few shims to make the board level, with the angle of the flat surface that I need). I also used the clamps as a "stop" so the router would not cut to far down the wing.

It is great that all my wood working tools have been extremely useful and work great for these fiber glass modifications.

This is hard to see, but the blue arrow is showing the dremel tool, some what flat, but not perfect. The yellow area is the router, perfect and flat.

 

 

When the camera is out... Danielle (my daughter - 20 years old) can't help but get in the action.

Fitting the actuator into the inside of the wing was going to be a challenge. Andy pointed this out to me in the very begriming, the wing is only 1 1/2" thick (this is outside surface-to-surface dimension) and the actuator is 1 1/2" thick, so I was going to have to bow out the bottom of the wing (for the actuator motor).

In this photo you can see how the actuator plate seats on the wing

The actuator sticks out above the bottom wing about 1/4", I will fiber glassing this section over the actuator.

I quick test while upside down to check flap movement

A close-up shot of the bottom of the wing flap and the mounting pin.

Flap Down - after these tests I can now finish cleaning up the fiber glass

Flap Up - Both the wing and flap need a few more hours of sanding a some fiber glass work.

Flap Down

Flap Up - Click on the photo to view a movie of the flap

Click on the photo to view a different view of the flap movie.

The actuator protrudes thru the bottom of the wing panel, so I am going to fiber glass over it. I placed a normal piece of foil over the actuator, and I also placed a screw at the end for the actuator mounting.

 

Here are two coats of fiber glass.

Here it is all sanded.

It bows out a total of 3/8"

When the panel is attached to the bottom of the wing you can see how it bows down.

Here is a different angle.

 

 
This entire Website is copyright © 2002-2005 by Ron Fletcher. All rights reserved.
Although my information comes from various builders and sources, if you want any information contact me. The photographs used on this site are used with permission, if you want to use any, contact them through the various links on this site. I did and you can see the results!