Just finished making the 4 slats and had the unpleasant task of rejecting 1 outboard slat due to dissimilar profile to the other 3. De- riveted and made up 3 new ribs to reassemble. The cause of the problem was the nose of the ribs were not fitted 100% correct so when all is done and riveted the resulting curve profile is different to the mating slat, ie you cant get the 2 slats, inboard and outboard to slide together. So tip to fellow scratch builders doing slats is make absolutely sure the…

Building the flaperons has been a challange for sure, scratch building, just another tip here which I learnt the hard way. DONT predrill the 3/32 soft rivet holes in the trailing edge, rather complete all riveting, then keeping the flap trailing edge flat, hold a lenght of timber along the trailing edge to press the upper and lower surfaces down straight and then drill and cleco, you will find then the flap comes out 100% straight.Hope to complete the 4th and last flap tonite!

Thouhgt I would pass this on for scratch builders mostly. I had a problem pulling down the top section of the flaperon skin after securing the bottom side of the skin. I left off the hinge brackets till after I had lined up and drill rivet holes. What was happening is the 2 little nose ribs were being distorted and bent as I pulled up the skin with the straps. Quick fix was to insert the wooden form blok back into the nose ribs, pull the skin up tite, mark and drill rivets holes. Now when…

Please can somebody help me before I have to open an inventory for plane #3. I am struggling to bend the doublers on the horizontal stabilzer.When the doubler comes out the bending break it looks like a dam banana, whats the trick to bending a doubler and getting it to stay straight. I even tried bending it on the edge of a full sheet and cutting it off after bending, this was a disaster, came out like a twisted banana!!. Thankfully I will be needing plenty L's in the build so hoping to…

Merry Xmas All, well still waiting for customs to release my parcel containing the plans. Took 6 days to get here by Fedex and so far 14 days and counting to get it cleared . Seems our super efficent customs service here in zimbabwe has succumbed to xmas fever!!!!!!!!