Section 23 Aileron Actuation

 

RV14 Build August

Aileron Actuation 

I did things a little different and did 21-23 before putting on the bottom wing skins. Im really glad I did this and hte access issues to rivet the skin on were minimal. Started in the beginning of the get making the pushrods and priming.

I tired to get smarter this time and made uniques marks on each tube to I would line the correct holes and parts back up after deburring.

Matt helped mark out and drill the aileron push rods. There was a decent amount of work to get the rod ends to fit inside the tubes i.e. some sanding

We put the rod end in the drill and used embry cloth to take it down evenly.

Next I assembled and drilled the torque tubes.

Primed the middle tube after drilling.

Primed the inside of the torque tube collars. I had too much primer in here or on the center tube because the fit after was TIGHT. I didn't realize this was going to be an issue, but installing these later you need the center tube to be able to travel up and down inside the collars to get the assembly installed.

Getting ready to final drill.

Final drilling with the drill press to get a even straight hole for the bolts.

Time to install the push rods. I was lucky and that my measurements where spot on for the long rods.

The shorter aileron push rods proved to be a little off and needed several fittings on and off to get it right. view of the aileron pushrod going through the aft spar.

Mounted the flaps.

Mounted the ailerons and right away on both sides I had an interference issue. I emailed vans and they recommended installing an extra washer as a spacer.

I also noticed the outboard aileron mounting brackets were both bent inward a bit. So a little pressure on these to straighten them out.

Test fitting with the extra washer and the clearance issue is no more!

Installing the pushrod and taking it off and installing it about 10 times to get the correct length. When I went to torque the bolt holding the inboard aileron mount I managed to WAY over do it and strip the threads and spend the next hour getting the bad bolt out and replacing it....Yeah this is fun lol

Using the aileron template to check both pushrods are the correct length. You start with the long one and measure the inboard rod end bearing distance from the rib to check it with the alignment plate in place. For the aileron you check with another alignment plate on the outboard of the aileron. 

After getting all the rod ends to a distance that I feel it correct I torqued them to spec.

Okay no more jumping ahead time to rivet on the bottom skin!

Section 23 Aileron Actuation 31.5 Man Hours

QBW Wing Section 21 & 22

 

RV14 Build August

QBW Aileron and Flaps

These 2 sections 21 and 22 are suppose to be complete in the quickbuild and I think this is where the money for the quickbuild really pays off. Lots of parts and lots of work by the look of it. I found 1 hole in the flap that wan't drilled.

I drilled out this last rib, I did hit the nutplate on the other rib so I hope that doesn't cause issues in the future.

Then on the same bracket, the metal was bent in and I couldn't get the rod bearing end in. Little bending back with a plastic scraper and that solved that.

Last this was to install the flap bushing in the wings.

Simple enough to install, but getting them to the right setting was a little tricky.

Section 21 & 22 Aileron and Flaps 1.0 Hours

Section 56 Garmin Autopilot Roll Servo

 RV14 Build August

Garmin AutoPilot Servos

This was one of the few things that I thought would go relatively easy and did!

First I mounted it up and noticed I didn't like the way the wires came in so I flipped the molex which required making the mounting bracket a little larger.

Then I had to make the pushrod.

A few attempts to install the hardware correctly and done.

Section 56 Garmin Autopilot Roll Servo 6.5 Hours

Section 19 Wing Systems Routing

RV14 Build August

Wing Systems Routing

I thought going into this section that it would be relatively straight forward, but I found a way to make it harder lol. First by wanting a Regulated GAP26 that required me to add some wires it also required 2 air lines. All this extra made for the snap bushings in the ribs to be WAY too small.

First I ordered a bunch of stuff from Stein to install in the wing before I closed it out. 

Regulated GAP26

Magnetometer

GTP-59. My plan at this point was to install this in the wing walk area on the fuselage, but turns out Vans has a hole in the left wing for it already so I need to make room in the snap bushings for this as well.

Starting the wiring process

Even with the stock wire bundles it became clear that the smallest size snap bushing the instructions call for was inadequet so I borrowed an idea from other peoples blogs and got a .5" step bit to open them up. This worked okay but I found a Vans article saying you can open tooling holes up to 5/8" and drill others to 3/4", going a little bigger would have been useful.

After I installed the new snap bushings I bought from Heyco and pulled the extra wires I needed I realized that I wanted to terminate my new wires into the same Molex connector if possible, but that means I needed to change this to a 12 pin.

New Wiring layout.

Got the dremel out an cut the bracket to size.

Since I was at it, I didn't like the way the Molex connector for the Autopilot servo Roll trim mounted so I moved that too. It gives it more clearance from the skin for the wires to bend down and make the turn.

This is what the molex would have looked like and the space the wires had to make the turn.

This is after, a lot more room hopefully less trouble with potential chafing.

Trimming the bracket.

Next I needed to clean up the wires, they all were a few inches too long so I trimmed and repinned where necessary.

I added heat shrink labels to the wing tip end of the wires...IDK thought it might be helpful in the future.

The nav and landing lights share ground and you have to splice these together. 

I used a solder sleeve to add the nav light ground into the landing light ground wire.

Connecting the GAP26 wires to the wires I added. I did twist the power and ground, but I was told its not necessary. 

Next thing left to do that I didn't get a good picture of was wire protection. I used a split braided wire wrap to protect the wire between grommets where it ran next to the spar, bolt heads, and rivets.

I used a spiral wrap for the wires going to the stall warning and the power ground wires a ran for a future ER Fuel Tank pump.

Finally all the wires are in and terminated.

Not enough room in a single snap bushing for both pito/aoa lines to a ran them down 2 seperate.

Wing Systems Routing 22 Man Hours