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21-08 Clecoing Flap Nose & Top Skins

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After coating the faying surfaces with JC5, a nice little job clecoing on the nose skin …

… followed by the top skin, which slips between the nose skin & spar.

Twist??

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I decided to check for any twist. Vans suggest you place a digital level on the rear of each hinge, making sure they are the same angle. But I found it hard to keep everything stable enough to take any usable readings.

So I set up my laser level so as to compare the line of the spar with the trailing edge.

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I aligned the bottom of the spar lightening holes with the laser line, then compared to the trailing edge …

… on each end.

The left flap was perfect, but the right showed significant twist.

So I un-clecoed the nose skin top and re-clecoed whilst the flap was weighed down flat on the workbench.

Happily this sorted it, and now both flaps are perfectly flat.

It just goes to show how a very small alignment change on the nose skin to spar joint can cause a big effect on twist. So I’ll keep a careful eye on this throughout the riveting of the nose skins.

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