I had a good, in-depth discussion with Shane Banquer yesterday regarding my baggage pods that he has to make molds from, as well as a number of other various points regarding painting.

We discussed the pros and cons of painting the aileron and rudder hinges, at which time I told Shane I was thinking about crafting an insert that would slide into the hinge notches to protect both the hinge pin holes and interfacing edges from getting paint applied in or on.  Well, here is the result of that discussion: a test insert for painting the hinges, IF I decide to go that route.

I then spent a good bit of time sanding the epoxy wiped right wing leading edge, first with 80 grit on my orbital to knock it down a good bit.  Then I used a 30″ board to wet sand it with 150 grit.  I’m happy to report at this point, that besides a final scuffing and cleanup, the right wing/aileron (top) and winglet/rudder is ready for primer and paint.

I spent another good hour working primarily the left aileron’s middle hinge configuration and internal hinge clearance, which once completed eliminated that awful middle hinge squawking.

As I assessed the final left aileron install and configuration, I decided I wasn’t happen with the middle hinge gap with the wing notch it sits in… it was too big forward of the hinge and wasn’t tight like all the other (at this point) hinge notch gaps (sorry, no ‘before’ pic).  I realized if I didn’t fix it now that I would regret it later on… so I removed the aileron, temporarily attached a taped-up stir stick to the underside edge of the notch, and slathered on some flox that I whipped up using MGS 285 epoxy (pic 1).  A few hours later I removed the taped stir stick to reveal the floxed edge on its own (pic 2).

I did essentially this same process on the left aileron inboard hinge notch and the left rudder bottom hinge notch as well, but didn’t document either of those… so I thought I would show you what I’m up to here.  I did a rough sand of the added flox to knock down the high spots (pic 1) and then marked the “cut to” line just a hair aft of the actual edge line I want (pic 2).

I cut the flox edge up to the marked line using the “Fein” saw (pic 1) before finalizing the sanding and shaping of the left aileron middle hinge added flox edge (pic 2).

A little while later I reinstalled the left aileron, and here’s what it looks like.  Much, much better… albeit I still may add a scooch of micro now on the inboard (right) side to close up THAT gap a hair (yes, unending!).

At this point it was finally time to trim the wing-to-winglet fairings respective trailing edges.  To have the TEs perpendicular to aircraft CL I ran a string across the trailing edge of the rudders just where they met the fairing wall aft top edge (I’ll note that the prerequisite task to do this was sanding down the epoxy wiped outboard front corner of the right rudder, then installing the rudder back into place).

I then realized that to get a better cut mark I needed the string to be below the fairing, so repositioned it on each side.  I then marked the left fairing TE for cutting (pic 1) and the right fairing as well (pic 2).

I then took a dinner break to spend a few hours with Jess.

Upon my return to the shop I knocked out cutting the aft edge of the left winglet intersection fairing (pic 1) and the right fairing’s aft edge too (pic 2).

Here we have a couple more representative shots of the cut aft edge of the left winglet intersection fairing.

Again, I’m even more happy to report that the left wing/aileron (top) and winglet/rudder meet my minimum requirements for primer and paint!

Tomorrow I’ll finish up any minor tasks on the wings, winglets and strakes as I press on with the top and bottom cowling paint prep, as well as the centerline fuselage and canopy interface finalization for micro finishing.