Started riveting the 2nd left aileron spar - 1.5 hours

I riveted the reinforcement plates to the main spar and then cleco'd the aileron assembly together. I then began to rivet the end/nose ribs to the main spar.

Drilled the 2nd left aileron counterbalance pipe - 3.5 hours

Next order of business is to drill the aileron counterbalance pipe. Truth be told, this is not a process that I enjoy. It takes a bit of time and you pretty much need to do the drilling by hand. I cleco'd the assembly together and started drilling the holes with #40 drill bit. I inserted a #40 cleco in each hole as I drilled. Then, I went back and drilled out all the holes with #30.

Once all the drilling was done, I then set up the drill press and countersink the pipe to accept the pull rivets. One item that I did differently this time round was to dimple the leading edge skin of the aileron by hand with a mallet rather than using the rivet gun on light pressure. One or two light taps with the mallet is all that was needed to provide a crisp dimple.


I then prep'd and primed all the remaining pieces and began riveting the nose rib to the counterbalance pipe.

Match drilled 2nd left aileron - 5 hours

Managed to put in a big day (well sort of) on the build. I finished up the back riveting in short order.


I had picked up a material yesterday to build the bending brake and the wood dowel so I could bend the skins. I was sure this time to slightly notch the wood dowel to allow the skin to be bent without the stiffeners digging into the dowel preventing a nice tight bend.


Once the skin was bent. I began the task of match drilling all the aileron spar components. Everything went well, same as the first one.
 

Back riveting stiffners - 1 hour

Not a whole lot to comment on, 2nd time just same process as before. I was sure to use some 3145 RTV on the last inch of the stiffener.

Prep and prime 2nd left aileron parts - 3 hours

I deburred the holes in the stiffeners and skin of the 2nd left aileron. I cleaned and scuffed the parts, de-grease, MEK and primed. Good to go!

Match drilling 2nd Aileron Stiffeners - 2 hours

Back around December shortly after I messed the first left aileron up I had ordered a replacement aileron. When it arrived I started in on trimming the stiffeners and shaping them. But after that, it just sat there as I was fully committed to complete ground school. So...after many months of ground school I decided I need to take a break and shake things up a bit. I pulled out the aileron parts and decided to get that done.

I needed to de-vinyl the skins, and then I match drilled the stiffeners onto the skins.

Ground School and Flying Lessons

Well. I have been hard at work, going through ground school and I am about 70% complete. The finish is just on the horizon. Lots to learn but I feel like I'm doing just fine.

So know that I am wrapping up ground school, its time to get going on my license. I've signed up with a flying school out at Cooking Lake CEZ3 which is just a 25min drive from my house. Tuesday was officially the first Canadian Lesson, and this morning was my second lesson. Tricky lesson as the wind was 17-20kt gusting up to 25kt. The landing was fairly crosswind, so it was just sitting back and watching on the landing.