Hatz Biplane Association

Top wings are completed now and ready to start construction on the bottom wings. I'm deciding whether to tackle the aileron skins myself of have them prebuilt. Any advise, experience pros or cons on this would be great appreciated.

Hi Ron,

Very nice, that's a foot step! We would recommand to buy the corrugated aluminum skins from Makelan! This worked out fine for us. The corrucations never match top and bottom side at all positions, but we have seen this on professional Waco restorations as well!

Happy building!

Hans & Sam, H.C.#78, Switzerland

Hi Hans and Sam,
Thank you for the reply and advise. Ive been tossing around the idea of building the hydraulic press that Doug mentioned and posted a link to. I had not considered that the corrugations could not match top and bottom. I suppose if one were to build the press there would be better control of each corrugation and could be marked and pressed indivudialy to match perfectly the top and bottom which would include toward the aileron tip where the taper begins.
Beautiful job on your project and really enjoy keeping up with you progress through your site!!

What are the advantages of Aluminum vs wood & fabric A La Kelly D ?

Jerry

Very nice work Ron!

Sorry, I can't offer any help on the skins. I purchased mine from Tom Brown of Unity Wisconsin.

-Scott

Great job, Ron! Hopefully I'll be at that point next summer.

RSouthard: Your wing looks fantastic, nice clean work.

On the aileron rib corrugation one can make a simple die using a press. To keep the spacing even just use an extension off the die with a gage rod to seat into the last formed rib. Yes the ribs would not match if the aileron starts to curve at any point, like at the tip. But does it matter?
I plan on making my own. I also noticed on some airplanes that the open ends of the ribs on the trailing edge are crimped closed. Comments?

womenfly2 wrote: I plan on making my own. I also noticed on some airplanes that the open ends of the ribs on the trailing edge are crimped closed. Comments?

That is a replication of the technique WACO used on their aileron skins. Leading and trailing edges were crimped closed. On the bottom skin each 3rd corrugation was left open at the trailing edge to facilitate moisture drainage.

was able to match the corrigations where the bottom surface bends up by slighly stretching (uncrimping) the skin. took a little effort but worth it to me because that is the sort of thing that draws my eye. (Monk is a TV personality I can relate to).

A bigger problem with the aileron construction is keeping everything else square. My first attempt came out looking more like and airscrew so some extra jigging was required.

John

A bigger problem with the aileron construction is keeping everything else square. My first attempt came out looking more like and airscrew so some extra jigging was required.

John for us just starting to build, would you elaborate on how you jigged the ailerons to keep them true.

Blue skies,
Keri-Ann