Flaperons

As the main wing construction has been halted, awaiting delivery of the Viking Aircraft Engines' RV-12 wing tank conversion kit, I began work on the flaperons.  But what is a flaperon?  Simply put, on an RV-12 it is a wing trailing edge control surface that functions both as a flap and an aileron.  A mechanical "mixer" inside of the center beam of the aircraft provides a means of accepting both control inputs (flaps handle movement and lateral movement of the control stick) to provide separate and distinct movements of the flaperons.

First task after all surface prep and priming was complete was to assemble a left and right nose rib to its respective bracket assembly.  The assembly on the right was touched up with some rattle-can primer after a solid rivet had to be drilled out.

Next, the actuation bracket's inboard holes were riveted onto the inboard end of the flaperon spar, as shown below.

On 2 locations of the spar, the flaperon pivot brackets were also attached to the spar.  These will serve as some of the hinge points of the flaperon to the wing.

My lovely wife gets into the action of riveting some ribs onto the flaperon spar.

 A shot of the finished flaperon spar, awaiting its tail and nose skins.

 Close up of the actuation bracket and unnamed bracket, which is attached to the inboard nose rib.

Meanwhile, down at the outboard end of the flaperon, resides the counterbalance (steel tube) that is attached to the outboard ribs of the spar.  The trailing edge skins are getting ready to be riveted in place.

 A shot of the inboard end of the counterbalance is shown below.

With the trailing edge skins in place, its time for the nose skins to be clecoed in place and some final match hole drilling of the nose ribs.

 Hard at work admiring myself in the reflection of the bare skins....and sometimes riveting too.

It really goes together pretty smoothly; no real hiccups of any kind appeared.

Looks like I'm back to the waiting game as I'd really like to have the wing tanks in house before skinning the wings.  There's always the lighting kit...perhaps it would be easier to make the cutout in the wing for the landing light now, before that skin is attached to the wing.  We'll see, so stay tuned.