Careful with the jig...
I've just been through the wingtip fitting process in the past couple weeks. A while back I was told by Vans that the aileron jig in the early wing kits (I have s/n 140017) was wrong and has been corrected in later kits (don't know which s/n the change occurred in). Page 41-07 says:
"Step 6: With the control stick base in the "fully neutral" position, verify that the ailerons are approximately 1/16 [1.6 mm] above the trail position with respect to the wingtip trailing edges. NOTE: Newer revisions of the W-00026 Alignment Template will have a reflex ID hole as shown on Page 23-10, Figure 2. If the template does not have the reflex ID hole, use shims to rig the trailing edge of the Aileron to protrude approximately 1/16 [1.6 mm] to ABOVE the trailing edge of the template. The Ailerons must be in this slightly reflexed position to compensate for aerodynamic loads during flight."
It was not clear to me how to identify the "reflex ID hole" but I sent a picture of my template and was told I had the older version and I should therefore rig the TE of the aileron 1/16" above the template. So, with both wings in the cradle that's how I rigged the ailerons (by adjusting the pushrods such that the bellcrank and wing root torque tubes were all in the specified neutral positions).
After making all the adjustments I decided to install the flaps just to see how everything looked and it became obvious that the aileron alignment could not possibly be correct...the TE of the ailerons was about 3/16 to 1/4" higher than the flap TE, and the flaps cannot go any higher (the LE of the flaps hits the rear spar in the fully reflexed position). I started thinking that the instructions must be wrong and actually the TE of the aileron should be rigged 1/16" below the template as this would provide better alignment with the flaps. So I emailed Vans to ask and received this response:
"This is because of the new tool to align the 14 ailerons, which takes no account of the flap position, and makes no allowance for any variations in the flaps/ailerons. See attached RV-10 section 23-9 that achieved the same task with no tool, simply by aligning the aileron with the flap. Probably a simpler way to go, if you want the ailerons and flaps to align. Either way, a 1/8 up/down is no problem."
So, I tossed the template in the scrap bin and went about alignment in the following manner:
1) First I used my digital level to verify that with both flaps in the full up position, they both have the same relative angle between the top surface of the flap and the top surface of the wing (as measured along the straight section of the ribs that extends a dozen inches forward of the rear spar). I recall this being about 3 deg reflex angle, but the important part is that they are identical on both wings. One flap was about 0.2 deg different from the other, so I placed a shim between the rear spar and flap LE to make them the same.
2) Then I adjusted both ailerons (bellcrank-to-aileron pushrod) to align the aileron TE with the flap TE. I double checked the aileron-to-wing rib angles just like I did for the flaps to verify they are identical on both wings.
3) I then fit the wingtips with the wingtip TE in alignment with the aileron TE. On the left wing the tip aligned perfectly. The alignment of the right tip wasn't quite correct, so I fixed it by cutting the inboard half of the wingtip with my dremel tool and re-bonded it with a couple pieces of fiberglass inserted to fill in the gap created by the cut. Clamped the TE between two pieces of alum angle that were also clamped to the aileron to hold everything in alignment until it dried.
I'm pretty confident my TE surfaces are now well aligned with the basic wing structure. Hopefully the wing incidence will come out equal on both wings using the plans procedure for drilling the rear spar holes (I would have preferred the approach used on earlier RVs where you install the wings, carefully align everything, and then drill the rear spar attach holes to the fuselage with everything assembled as I have a higher degree of confidence in getting both wings exactly the same with that process).