NorthernRV4
Well Known Member
Hi Gents
I'm making great progress on the flaps and have everything fit and drilled. Other than running into an edge distance issue on the port inboard rib which required making a new rib (read: making form blocks and 3 tries before I had a good final product). I'm wondering what I should do about trimming the inboard end of the upper and lower skins. I know I should leave a little extra for fitting upon assembling the wings to the fuselage but there is over an inch of extra material. I had a look at a friend's -4 and found the skins were a little different than what I've read about and interpreted from the plans. His don't have any extension of the bottom skin to overlap the fuselage bottom. Any suggestions on how to trim this now that won't cause me grief later?
Flap inboard end by James Soutar, on Flickr
Flap inboard end by James Soutar, on Flickr
His has the skin trimmed very close to the rib at the LE and angling inboard about 1/2" at the TE to match the fuselage side. Also it seems to somewhat match the angle that the rib leans in towards the top.
Flap inboard end by James Soutar, on Flickr
Flap inboard end by James Soutar, on Flickr
I'm making great progress on the flaps and have everything fit and drilled. Other than running into an edge distance issue on the port inboard rib which required making a new rib (read: making form blocks and 3 tries before I had a good final product). I'm wondering what I should do about trimming the inboard end of the upper and lower skins. I know I should leave a little extra for fitting upon assembling the wings to the fuselage but there is over an inch of extra material. I had a look at a friend's -4 and found the skins were a little different than what I've read about and interpreted from the plans. His don't have any extension of the bottom skin to overlap the fuselage bottom. Any suggestions on how to trim this now that won't cause me grief later?
Flap inboard end by James Soutar, on Flickr
Flap inboard end by James Soutar, on Flickr
His has the skin trimmed very close to the rib at the LE and angling inboard about 1/2" at the TE to match the fuselage side. Also it seems to somewhat match the angle that the rib leans in towards the top.
Flap inboard end by James Soutar, on Flickr
Flap inboard end by James Soutar, on Flickr