28 Oct 2026 - 3 hours
I had a big day today and I was able to finish the flaps! I started by getting the ribs riveted to the top skin and then kept going straight into the spars. Both flaps were ready to get the spars riveted and I was able to get them both finished. The spar to rib blind rivets are a little tricky to reach due to the curved extra top skin, but flexing the skin a bit and using my little wedge tool let me get those pulled.Here's an in-progress shot riveting the spar to the top skin. This has to be done with a gun and bucking bar because of the curved extension of the top skin reaching over. These were easy to reach and came out really nicely.
The bottom skin/spar/hinge rivets can be reached with the squeezer so those also came out really nicely. The final rivets were on the aileron brackets and I was able to get those with the squeezer, too. Here are now two completed flaps!
The next thing I need to do is get the flaps and ailerons mounted to the wings rather than just having them strewn about the garage floor...