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badly aligned wing tip rv9

rckcrlr

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Please let me know if this isn't the right section to post this question...

Background

I bought an already built rv9 and have been going through fixing little odds and ends since purchasing. I have all the docs from vans and have spent a lot of time learning everything I can about how it's put together and enjoying every minute of it. In fact, I now want to build one myself...

To my question. The co-pilot side wingtip is WAY off in alignment with the ailerons and flaps. I've pulled the wingtip and verified that the ailerons and flaps are in the correct position using the wing rib tooling holes. The tip is not only 1/2 lower where the tip meets the ailerons but it also bends downward, meaning the far outside of the wingtip is signifacantly lower than the inside at the trailing edge. This discovery started when trying to diagnose a heavy left wing...

I've pulled the tip off which is attached using the vans method of small screws through the aluminum wing skin to nut plates attached to the inside of the wingtip on what looks like an aluminum strip. In order to straighten out the alignment I'll need to rotate the tip clockwise and remove some of the wing tip material on the top portion to fix downward bend. In order to do this I need to remove the aluminum strip with the nut plates attached and re-attach in the correct location after trimming the tip. It looks like the nut plates are riveted to the aluminum strip and not all the way through the wingtip so theoretically I could heat the aluminum strip and pull it away from the wingtip to remove.

I've gone back and forth on if I should just buy a new tip and start from scratch or try to heat and pull the nut plate strip off the existing one. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

FYI.. I've read a ton on the hinge attach method and decided I'll stick with the current method as it isn't that difficult to remove and attach.

Scott
 
Splitting the trailing edge and up a distance on the tip, and re-bonding is fairly common to fix the tips. I had to do that on my Aveo Ziptips, which was complicated by the trailing edge light.
 
I’d pull the strip, fill the countersunk holes with flox, and start over.

+1 here - go ahead and pull it off with whatever method works, fill the holes, and drill new ones as required for new install.

Splitting the tips and re-glassing them to achieve in-trail configuration is not unheard of. My right wingtip hangs about 1/4" low in cruise and it just has not (yet) been a big enough bother to do anything about. Mine is a "go-plane", not a show-plane. It looks mostly like an airplane but it's really a farm truck.
 
I’d pull the strip, fill the countersunk holes with flox, and start over.

The wingtip shape is pretty much locked in unless you also remove or loosen off the W916 & W931 wing tip ribs too.

I'd remove the nutplate strips, flox in the old screw holes, & loosen at least one side of the W916 & W931 ribs & see if the wing tip can be shifted into a better position on the wing. With the tip taped or load strapped in place, I'd mark out the new screw holes for a new strip & nutplates. If necessary, I'd split the trailing edge to get best alignment. Finally, I would re-rivet the W931 rib, than the W916 in their new positions.
Yes, this should have some positive effect on the opposite heavy wing situation.
 
Pretty much agree with Greg, although I’m not sure if re-glassing the holes and re-drilling is necessary. If the wingtips fit on the wings without putting anything but a very small load for making it fit, I wouldn’t change that. Splitting the trailing edge tips to make them align with the properly jigged ailerons/flaps, is almost a completely normal thing to do. I’ve done that on half of the four RVs I’ve built. I just got lucky on two of them. The fix is relatively simple. Split the trailing edge of the wingtip with a cutoff wheel, dremel tool, jigsaw, sawsall (be careful), whatever but free it so that you can align it with your properly configured aileron trailing edge. May require some sanding on the inside of that cut line you just made. Align the new trailing edge of the newly split wingtip with your aileron, clamp it in that place, drill a couple #40 holes (or #30 - your choice), and clecoe it to hold it there. Then Schmutz up the interior of that split joint with an epoxy/flox mixture, put the clecoes back in to hold it , maybe add a couple layers of wetted cloth on the outside, and wait for it to cure. After cure, remove the clecoes and sand your result to flush in all dimensions. You’ll need to fill the clecoe holes and any unevenness with epoxy filler/micro……. then wait for your final paint job and gold Lindy because everything fits so perfectly.
 
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The problem I had was that splitting the TE of the wingtip only lets you align the wing tip inboard end to the aileron. The outboard end of the wingtip TE doesn't move, so the alignment of the wing tip TE and the aileron TE may not be a straight line. It may not be too bad, but I had to cut the wingtip forward from the outboard TE about 18in to get the tip TE co-linear with the rest of the TE
 
I say split and cut it and see what you can do. Nothing to lose other than the fiberglass ich and you can learn how to do it.
 
The problem I had was that splitting the TE of the wingtip only lets you align the wing tip inboard end to the aileron. The outboard end of the wingtip TE doesn't move, so the alignment of the wing tip TE and the aileron TE may not be a straight line. It may not be too bad, but I had to cut the wingtip forward from the outboard TE about 18in to get the tip TE co-linear with the rest of the TE

I don’t understand why you can’t align to the whole trailing edge wingtip. You split the whole TE of the fiberglass wingtip all the way out, and maybe a little way forward if needed, in fact it sounds like that’s what you’ve done. If the outboard end of the wingtip doesn’t align, then you need to do some more trimming. If your aileron jig aligns your ailerons, then that is your starting point. Make the tips align with that with trimming/fitting of the tips.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. The left side is about 1/4 inch off but it’s in the same horizontal plane to the ailerons and flaps. I don’t see how splitting the trailing edge will fix the entire problem on the right side. If you look down the trailing edge the tip trailing edge is at an angle going upward toward the aileron. I’ll get a couple pictures tomorrow.
 
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