Drilling aileron/flap hinge brackets

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Tralika
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Location: Wasilla Alaska

Drilling aileron/flap hinge brackets

Post by Tralika »

This question is about the conventional Highlander wing with wood ribs.
I'm ready to drill the aileron/flap hinge & bellcrank brackets. I'm a little confused about the instructions in the build manual. Step 2 says to clamp the brackets on the rib, when alignment is satisfied drill plates using drill(ed) plate as a guide. Step 7 says to drill one corner hole just into the web, rotate the other plate to one side and continue drilling right through the web. It sounds like drilling through the web would have been done in step 2. Assuming the manual wants the hole drilled through the undrilled bracket first, then placed on the web and the hole in the web drilled separately, wouldn't that be more likely to create alignment problems? It seems like clamping both brackets on the web in proper alignment, then using the drilled bracket as a guide, drill through the rib web and right into the undrilled bracket would assure alignment for the rivet. I'd appreciate input from anyone who has completed the task.
John Nealon
Wasilla, Alaska
Highlander Extreme #191
mykitlog.com/jnealon
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danerazz
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Location: Bangor

Re: Drilling aileron/flap hinge brackets

Post by danerazz »

I had the same conundrum when I drilled mine. I couldn't figure out why they said to do it that way. The only thing I can think of is they want you to line everything up, clamp it all in place, then drill through the DRILLED plate, into the rib, not drill the undrilled one, and verify drill alignment. This was the only explanation I could come up with for the procedure to be written that way.

All that said, I did it the way you suggest: Line it up, clamp everything together, drill using the pre-drilled plate as a template all the way through the un-drilled plate. Make sure the drill is perpendicular to the whole thing to get a straight hole and maintain edge distances in the undrilled plate.

This worked great for me, everything stayed where it belonged and is nice and straight, really simple to do (just make sure you measure about 8 times before you drill, and measure again after each hole, and cleco each hole as you go to hold everything together, and I had the flap/ailerons bolted to the plates and clamped in position during the process to make sure the hinge-bolt holes stayed lined up, and don't forget the 1/8" spacer between the leading edge of the flaps/ailerons and the wing metal trailing edge when you line it all up).

Good luck,

Dane
Dane

Paralysis by analysis
#242
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Tralika
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Re: Drilling aileron/flap hinge brackets

Post by Tralika »

Thanks for the reply Dane. I clamped all the brackets in place and drilled them with my Dremel tool with the bit in a flexible shaft. It looks like everything came out right. I went out and bought a cheap rivet pulling tool and ground down the top so it would fit in the confined space to pull bottom aft rivets at each station. I'll finish the installation today assuming I don't get pulled off the project for Independence Day activities.
John Nealon
Wasilla, Alaska
Highlander Extreme #191
mykitlog.com/jnealon
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danerazz
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Re: Drilling aileron/flap hinge brackets

Post by danerazz »

Yeah, I don't fully understand what they are trying to do with the instructions provided, it seems easier and less likely to come out of alignment if you do it as a one-step proceedure. Maybe somebody can enlighten us as to what the manual is trying to get at.
Dane

Paralysis by analysis
#242
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