Wendell Folks RV-8 Project - Page 9.

December 17, 2005:  One week has passed since the delivery of Wendell's RV-8 quick-build fuselage, wings, and finishing kit.  The plans book has specific instructions for "quick-builders" at the beginning of each section for the wings and fuselage.  The aileron bellcranks were installed first, followed by the wiring conduits for strobe lights and low-voltage lights in the wings.  The small unibit made perfect half-inch holes in most of the ribs, but a long drill bit was needed to put the holes in three of the four wing-walk ribs at the wing root.

I demonstrated the new skills needed to build the aileron and elevator pushrods and Wendell went to work cutting the tubes to length and installing the machined ends to accept the rod-end bearings.  One powder-coated steel push rod used in the control stick assembly has the threaded end caps welded in place and it is already powder coated.   All four of these aluminum rods need to be primed before installation.  Two smaller powder-coated steel push rods were also cut to length and fitted with threaded ends to connect from the aileron bellcranks to the ailerons.  The powder coated steel mounting brackets were also secured to the ailerons, which were otherwise complete and ready for mounting to the wings.  The flaps are assembled and will require the top inboard skin to be trimmed to fit the curve of the fuselage at the inboard ends.

Here are most of the components of the control stick assembly.  The bronze bushings and the short small steel tubes that accept them are too long to fit between the ends where bolts will hold them all together.  Part of the problem is the thickness of the powder-coat paint.  The aileron push rods shown in the photo above connect to the triangles seen resting on the table surface in the photo below.

The rear baggage compartment panels were held in place with screws and a few soft pop-rivets.  All of those have been removed to allow access to the aft fuselage.

The aileron mounting brackets came as a kit with the angles already pre-punched and ready to assemble.  The only holes that needed to be drilled were in the end-rib at the wing tip.

Both bottom outboard wing skins needed to be match-drilled to the wing ribs and prepared for deburring and dimpling before priming.  Wendell will be priming all the aluminum parts shown on this page during his Saturday work session (today).  He always takes Sundays off and spends the day with his wife.