Flaps and Flap Motor Assembly

 November 5 2020

Assembly of the flaps and the flap drive motor onto the fuselage are beginning,  Most was previously fabricated but now needed to be installed and all connected up. The slotted flaps with a curved leading edge allow air to flow over the flaps as they are deployed.  These are hinged on the bottom of the wing using external hinge hangars.  As flaps are dropped back there is a air opening that will allow some under wing air to flow over the tops of the flap surface.  Drive motor was installed which hangs on the back side of the passenger seat and drives a torque tube for the flaps.  Each end of the torque tube has a forked fitting to mate with rod end bearings on the flaps.  The flap motor was installed with the electronic flap positioning unit sold from Vans.  It took quite a bit of setting up but it now works setting the flaps to 6 degrees, 12 degrees and 33 degrees.    

The rod end bearings and fork go above my wing root fairing about 1 inch and so a rectangular hole had to be cut open.  This rectangle will end up with a blister of fiberglass over it to hide this opening which is in the No Step zone of the wing.

Below is the flap motor and flap torque tube showing below it.  The electrical wires are to the motor and the flap positioning unit, which presets the flap extension for 6, 12 and 33 degrees.  At the bottom of the drive motor is a block of wood bonded to the side of the tunnel, this is a safety to stop the motor/drive arm from being able to ever go over center.  Were this able to happen the flap mechanism would  lock up in the down position.  The flap switch on the panel allows a tap of the switch for each down position and moving the switch to up retracts the flaps fully.