Finally. Not working on fuel tanks. It’s a breath of fresh air to be building new components – the flaps. They came together pretty quickly while still incorporating new elements and building techniques. I started in mid-January 2021 about finished about four weeks later.
In terms of all the components built to date, the flaps came out near-perfect and I’m very pleased with the final components. Humility was once again found when working on the ailerons, but that’s for the next post.
On the RV-14, the flaps are located on the trailing edge of each wing, between the fuselage and the ailerons, and extend downward from the wing when put into use. The purpose of the flaps is to generate more lift at slower airspeed, which enables the airplane to fly at a greatly reduced speed with a lower risk of stalling. This is especially useful during takeoff and landing. When extended further, flaps also generate more drag which slows the airplane down much faster than just reducing throttle. See this site if wanting to learn more: https://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/aircraft-systems/how-flaps-work/
Below is some pics of the build
As always – a short, time lapsed compilation of the flaps being built along a guest star for those with an eye for detail