Trying to get caught up on my posts...been too busy building to do much writing. So, long ago I decided I really liked the method of attaching the wingtips with piano hinge, essentially just like the cowl. I like the clean look of no screws and am only installing screws when I absolutely have to. Beyond the aesthetics, its a snap to remove the tips vs. the countless screws.
I don't know that this install method is any faster, even though you don't have to install all of those platenuts, the song and dance you go through to attach the hinges makes it a wash in my opinion from a time standpoint.
First step...installing the hinge on the wings...don't forget to add your spacer...I did and had to drill out rivets to add it back in.
Get your aileron set in its neutral trailing position using your Van's supplied jig on the bell crank. This is important since you want your tips to line up nicely with that datum. I used tape to hold the aileron in place.
Doing the initial fitting...you will need to cut off some of the joggle area on the fiberglass tip...essentially wherever the hinge resides. Don't cut the leading edge off however.
Clamp the trailing edge in place and then jockey the wingtip into position before match drilling. You'll be surprised how easy it is to get the trailing edge lined up with this method. When I first installed the tip, I was a 1/4" off...
The method is to sand off the gel coat so you can see through the fiberglass when it is backlit. In this way, you can see your rivet holes you drilled in the hinges. The plans say to use some foam to hold the tip in position...its not needed in my opinion, I did the second one without it.
Installed...and looking darn purdy.
A nicely aligned trailing edge was not hard to achieve.
This is what my leading edge looks like. I trimmed back the joggle area so it would clear some rivets I installed to cover up a couple of the pre-punched holes I didn't use.
Lastly, it was time to install the trailing edge rib...not much to this. You can see my creative trim efforts to get around the hinge. Although not shown, this is where you will install a plastic block to capture the hinge pins.
With the tips done, I moved onto the flaps. This is what they looked like out of the box...almost perfect with the fuse sidewall. I did some minor trimming here to make the gap uniform.
Again, you will use your aileron as your datum for the flaps. The trailing edge of the tip, aileron and flap should all line up nicely.
Another shot of how my tip lined up...just a light difference in how long the trailing edge is...definitely can live with that.
The flap, after some trimming...
The bottom side, showing my flap overlap...this came out perfect, just gave it a very small bend at the sharpie line you see and it comes up nice and flush with the bottom of the fuse. Some guys end up having to cut these off because they are so far off.
Cutting the hole in the fuse really was no big deal. I've read how some guys come up with really intricate shaped patterns for this. Total overkill. My slot in the bottom didn't need to be this big however, I got a little overzealous and didn't think it through. The aft portion of the slot isn't needed. But...you'll never see this unless you are crawling around under the plane while the flaps are down, total non-issue.
There ya go...the left wing is looking "finished"...cool! I did the right wing as well, but no pics since they would be redundant. I did, however, snap this pic with both wings done.
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