Got the aileron back on this evening 😊

You see how much had been lost off the bottom of the hinge … only about 3mm

Drill and sink the rivers to be as flush as possible or you will have gapping problems when aileron is fitted

Always time for a bit of auto glym whilst waiting for the Oratex iron to get to temp

Parts arrived from TLAC today ..

So got straight on and finished the neat die cut prepped parts .. haven’t done this for ages !

TLAC provide the die cut parts so it’s really quick to simply saw through the breaks and then grind and file and emery down to a smooth finish

Looking at the new part next to the damaged part you can see just how little was shaved off BUT not worth the risk as you can see the tolerances at the lower end of the hinge point has reduced by 50% ie about 3mm

Paul had advised that the original Loctite 246 two part glue would need warming to break the seal against the ply aileron end rub. I wasn’t looking forward to this as I thought it might damage the end rib but, in the end, it prized away really cleanly

I had forgotten how much this glue smelt ! A very popular move opening this in the dining room on the table 😊😊

Paul had promised to pop something in for me to bolster the tip to ‘important parts’ clearance and the white block would be shaped and fitted to the wing tip

Countersunk rivet heads to allow for close fit hinge at wing tip

Havent seen my trusty old rivet gun for a while ! Did every rivet with this 😊

Also getting the Oratex ready to cover the repair

So .. after my last little off – too fast and part wing lift to then leave the runway .. I went to fly again this weekend as we finally got a lovely cool sunny relatively calm morning

My youngest, Sam, was very keen to come down and have a catch up fly so I popped down early to get it setup and ready

As I crawled under the starboard wind I spotted that the outer aileron hinge mount was scraped ..on checking it looked like it had shaved off about 5mm of the lower love of the bracket

I decided that this effectively grounded the aircraft until I had removed the aileron to check further

Sam and I removed the lower aileron in about 5 minutes and could then see both the wing mounted hinge bracket and the aileron mounted end bracket had both been shaved down a little thereby reducing the tolerance of the hinge at the bolt center point

I sent Paul at TLAC a copy of the pics and we agreed it would need two new parts .. Ivor emailed me next day – parts were in the post and should be here (Jersey) in around 36 hours ! Great service guys

I reckon it will take around 2-3 hours to repair .. careful slit of the Oratex underside of the aileron and drill out the rivets … need to sweat the aileron central shaft off the Loctite 246 fixed end plate