Flaperon Bracket Assemblies Riveted

First thing on the agenda was to verify the quality of the wiring connections made thus far. The wires to the landing light’s Molex connector were verified with an ohm meter … continuity was tested to the electrical connector at the root of the wing and all connections were good. The cable for the navigation/strobe lighting was also buzzed out and all was well there too.

The flaperon bracket assembly is the last item to be installed onto the left wing skeleton before the upper wing skins are riveted in place.  The first item requiring riveting is the W-1216B-L hinge rib … when this rib is in place, it creates a TIGHT fitting slot for the flaperon hinge bracket to slip up into.

Holding a flaperon hinge bracket which slides up into the slot between the W-1210 rib and the W-1216B hinge rib.

AN470AD4-4 rivets were used to attach the rear flange of the hinge rib onto the rear spar in place of LP4-3 pop rivets. The top two rivets were easily reached with the pneumatic squeezer but the bottom rivet was set with a rivet gun. The flaperon bracket was temporally skewed to make access for the rivet gun. This kept the nice look of only AN470AD4 rivets visible on the rear spar. Sweet!

Squeezing AN470AD4-4 rivets for securing the rear flange of the W-1216B hinge rib onto the wing’s rear spar.

                                     Using a rivet gun to set the bottom rivet of the W-1216B hinge rib onto the rear spar.
                                     Note: the flaperon bracket is skewed to make access for the rivet gun.

The flaperon bracket assembly is normally riveted in place with LP4-3 pop rivets but I wanted to try getting a few solid rivets into the assembly. To that end, the pneumatic squeezer was only able to reach the four rivets along the diagonal edge of the flaperon bracket. Using the rivet gauge, it was determined AN470AD4-6 rivets were required.

                                              Using a rivet gauge to select the proper sized rivet for riveting the flaperon
                                              hinge bracket assembly onto the W-1210 rib … an AN470AD4-6 was perfect.

                               Setting AN470AD4-6 rivets into the flaperon bracket. with the pneumatic squeezer.

The decision was made to NOT use a rivet gun to set all the rest of the flaperon hinge bracket rivets because the rivet gun clearance was not the best. The rivets are so close to the edge of the skin or rear spar that an offset rivet set would be needed. But even with the offset set in the rivet gun, there were still clearance issues preventing the rivet set from resting squarely on the rivet heads … because of near by pop rivet shop heads. So for fear of creating a mess, I used LP4-3 pop rivets in the remaining rivet locations. But at least there are four solid rivets in the assembly and I like the thought of that.

                                Using a hand riveter to set LP4-3 pop rivets into a flaperon bracket assembly ...
                                a piece of scrap metal under the rivet gun will prevent primer scratches.

                                   A finished flaperon bracket assembly with both solid and pop rivets in place.