Some aileron efforts and a snag.

I've been putting together the right aileron off-and-on this week, and run into a snag.

First, the aileron rib spacing has been determined and all of the normal ribs were bonded in place.  These are the same ones CNC cut for the flaps, so everything should line up.  The hardest part was making the spacing even.  Turns out every last one is spaced at 9.25 inch intervals, compared to 11 inches for the flaps.  But the aileron moves more and I figure can use the extra stiffness.  The large gap between ribs 4 and 5 in the picture is for the control horn tube.

The aileron is hinged and it matches up quite nicely to the flap.  The trailing edge is pretty much straight, which is cool, and the angle of the hinge relative to the ribs is essentially the same on both, which technically doesn't matter, but is nice aesthetically.

Note the weird perspective makes the trailing edge tube look bent ... and it probably is bent under its own weight without the struts and jury struts to keep it in-line.

The location of the aileron control horn has also been established to keep the pushrod pretty much straight in-line with the aileron slide tube.  This should mean the least amount of stress on the guide tubes and their respective bonding.

This new location clears the strut attachment nicely.  I ended up moving the bracket outboard by one hole.  And that's where my snag hit.  Maybe I got too quick actually making a change.  I did have a great day today.

Here's an illustration of the problem.  The flap will fold nicely against the wing ribs for transport, but the aileron doesn't.  That's because the head of one of the bolts in the control horn hits the bolt of the compression strut.  Darn.  Not sure what to do about that yet.

In the meantime, I'm quite happy with how sturdy the aileron and control horn seem attached to each other.

Maybe I don't ever have to fold the aileron back that far for transport.  Since I'm building a trailer for this (at some future date), I could just plan that the aileron only has to fold a maximum of 90 degrees instead of flat against the wing.  It's a feature, not a bug!

Ignoring the snag momentarily, next is to finish the aileron trailing edge attachment at the tip (making up how to do that still), finish the last few tip ribs that are custom lengths, bond on the aileron slide tube guides, order some new jury strut material, assemble Goat in the back yard to include the flap linkage quick-link for the first time, connect up the aileron linkages all the way to the fuselage, replace the four jury strut tubes, and then make airplane noises with all three control axes connected for the first time!  Hm, doubtful I'll get through all of that by this weekend, but hopefully by the end of April.  At that point, it'll be worth having my A&P coworker over to offer critiques...

Happy spring everyone.