Flap Actuator Mechanism
Originally I was going to do manual flaps, but since electric flaps are standard on the RV’s (and I forgot to take them off of the order) I decided to go with electric flaps.
As with all of these sub systems, there are some pieces that need to be fabricated before you can move on. I started there and got those made first.
These didn’t take very long, I’m getting good at this now. I actually look forward to fabricating parts. The one in the upper right in the picture above I am particularly proud of. There isn’t much to go on in the plans other than a full scale drawing. With just that I nailed it.
Once that was done it was time to put the actuator in the plane.
The actuator is the white bar.
The actuator is held into place be three bearings made from Nylon or Delrin or some sort of plastic. The two end pieces are pretty easy. You just pound them onto the ends of the tube with a rubber mallet. The center bearing is where the fun happens. It was so much fun I forgot to take pictures. You have to drill the holes for the bolts and then cut the block in half. This is where the drill press earns its keep. It is also where I find out my band saw really sucks. Not enough to replace, mind you, but it sucks none the less. What you wind up with is this.
If you look really closely around the base of that block you see that I trimmed the floor plates to fit around this block. The reasons for this is to allow for the removal of the floors without having to remove the flap actuator. That would be really inconvenient if I had to do that.
<rant>
Vans really pisses me off sometimes. I have to make a plate out of .063 aluminum. They do this fairly often where they don’t provide you with the correct stock specifically for a part. You are expected to make the part from scraps you have laying around and from the “extra” material they send with the kit. The problem is you don’t know all the parts that you have to make from the extra so you don’t know how to cut it. So now I don’t have any .063 2024-T3 aluminum sitting around big enough for this plate. Now I get to go order some. I’m going to get it from Spruce.
</rant>
