Fri Dec 7 2007

Problem with aileron bracket

I temporarily installed the left aileron this evening and noticed a problem. The outboard aileron bracket was canted about 1/8 inch inboard causing the aileron to be shifted inboard and messing up the spacing of the inboard aileron bracket.

The thing that caused this is the aluminum angle part of this bracket wasn't a 90 degree angle. I noticed this when I was riveting these brackets together, but didn't realize it would cause a problem later.

I tried flexing the bracket outboard, but could see that since the aluminum angle was 1/8 inch thick, whereas the spar was .040, the spar was gonna take the brunt of the bending, so I stopped before doing any damage. This is a real problem. How the heck am I gonna fix this now that the wing is all closed up. If I still had the bottom skins off, I'd just drill out the rivets holding the bracket on and bend the angle straight with it off the wing, but with it all closed up, there's no way to drill the rivets out without major surgery. Maybe I'll think of something tomorrow.