Glorious spring!

Lots of work, and it's only Saturday with tomorrow's weather forecast to be even nicer.

First was a little pre-assembly.  Move all the sub-assemblies to the back yard, and pull the left wing down from the wall.  Had to bolt on the control surfaces and I mixed up a little epoxy to install the control line guides.  Finally replaced the marked compression strut, flipped a couple bolts, and it was ready to go.

Next was a big assembly game to put together Goat to now include the ailerons and flaps!  A neighbor (shown) wandered over and helped me get through how to handle the wing with the control surfaces on.  It's important to start with the wing on the trailing edge, rather than the leading edge, for easier installation of the nose section... other than that, it went together like normal.

With it all together, I started tying the control lines together.  It took a quarter-hour to get the ailerons centered with the stick also centered.  But then the ailerons could wiggle correctly.  It's aliiive!

The control linkage modifications worked great, and there are no interference issues between the strut attachment and the control arm.  Full motion stops short of the two PVC guides.

Another minor modification was to push the control horn attachment point forward by an inch.  I had apparently accidentally drilled an extra hole an inch forward of the by-the-drawings location, so I moved the aft control horn arm forward to it and that location gives (to me) better geometry for the actuation.  I'd rather have differential wherein the downward deflection is somewhere around 50-75% of the upward deflection.  With the horn in the original location, it was easily the opposite differential.  Even now, there is an awful, awful lot of downward deflection.  I need a nice angle gauge to get some numbers.  I have no qualms about the strength or stiffness, just working through pilotability details.

While everything was assembled, I reworked the jury strut lengths so it does work without buying more material.  This is the attachment for the left wing jury strut attachment at the trailing edge.  Note that the AN42B hinge bolt is not through the trailing edge tube directly, rather it is one hole forward.  This is what lets the flap fold all the way upside down on the airfoil ribs.

One of the other advantages of assembling the whole kit was to allow mounting the flap panel flange.  I'm out of large 3/4" washers, but you get the idea.  With the location confirmed correct and the holes drilled, I'm going to remove the bolts, carve out some of the foam, pack that with thickened epoxy, and re-drill.  Making a hard-point will hopefully help this area stay sturdy.

Finally, just a nice photo of today's progress.  The wing ribs are just temporarily held in place with masking tape, and it looks so much better with them in place :-)

Every hole, bolt, knot, swaged fitting, and cup of epoxy is one step closer...