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Europa-List: aileron fitting to wing

Subject: Europa-List: aileron fitting to wing
From: Fred Klein <fklein@orcasonline.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:42:29

Gentlemen,

First, it's inspiring to read about flying experiences w/ our wonderful 
little birds...especially to one who has only recently been able to get 
down to some serious work on his XS mono kit. Care to take a stroll 
down memory lane?

I've checked the archives on the subject of fitting the ailerons to the 
wing and found no previous posts which deal with the particular problem 
I've created for myself...indulge me for a moment.

Fitting the starboard aileron to the wing seemed like a piece of 
cake...plenty of travel, no rubbing or snags.

The port aileron has been a somewhat different story...the first thing 
I noticed after clecoing it in place was significant rubbing of the top 
surface on the trailing edge closeout. Then I noticed that the trailing 
edge of the port aileron was 1/8" short of the trailing tip of the 
wingtip, whereas the starboard aileron was 3/8" short of the wingtip.

I also noticed that the offset between the flap closeout and the 
aileron closeout on the starboard wing was 1 inch but on the port wing 
it was 1.5 inches.

The net result of these differences appeared to be that the starboard 
wing/aileron would have between 1/4 and 1/2 inch more chord that of the 
port wing. I found no references in the manual which noted this as a 
design feature; after taking numerous comparative measurements, it 
appeared that the aileron closeout and hinge line of the port wing was 
between 1/4 and 1/2 inch further aft than on the starboard wing. It 
appeared to me that a bit of trimming would equalize the wing area, and 
by moving the port aileron forward, I would reduce the rubbing between 
it and the closeout.

Accordingly, I proceeded to trim (first) the lower trailing edge of the 
port wing and re-established the hinge rebates, trial fitted the 
aileron, and subsequently trimmed back the top trailing edge of the 
closeout. After remeasuring, I found I had two wing/ailerons of the 
same size.

Ahh...that pesky law of unintended consequences!...for now I find that 
with "up" aileron, the leading edge of the aileron hits the inside 
surface of the closeout...and...I do not have the required amount of 
travel with "up" aileron limited to about 20 degrees.

To dig myself out of this hole, I propose to shave back a portion of 
the leading edge of the aileron which is buried in the wing trailing 
edge closeout and re-glass as necessary.

At this point, I'm wondering if I've been too anal retentive about 
having my wing/ailerons match (?)... whether others have noticed 
similar variations and let them be (?)...or whether my "fix" seems 
reasonable (?).  Comments Please!

Fred
A194



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