SonexBuilders.net

Sonex engineers must have had a bad day when they designed the aileron tip ribs. That's the one with the goofy angles on it that is suppose to finish the end of the ailerons at the tip. I have found (after hours of measurement and massage) that these tip ribs appear to be impossible to get a decent fit on. Mine will fit everywhere but the nose skin of the aileron. I can't possibly rivet these in place without deforming the aileron skin someplace. Please tell me someone has a magic trick up their sleeve to make these work. I have a solution but it doesn't involve an aluminum tip.

Also, has anyone just walked away from the Sonex B tips and machined off the tip of the spar and fabricated squared off tips instead? Possibly more work, likely better looking. I am really tempted to just park all the tip pieces on the shelf and make my own square tips. Anyone with ideas on this mod would be worth listening to.

Thanks, Capt. T

Common garden variety.
Chuck them on the also--ran pile and make replacements.

Mine were fine out of the box. In your case I'd make new ones like Area 51. Never seen one with squared off tips. I like the Sonex tips personally.

The fit is highly dependent on what angle you put on the angle you need to bend to fit, took me about 30 minutes to get it just right with alot of trial and error but once it was right it fit pretty well.

Keep in mind one of the angles uses different spacing for the holes i forget which one but it ends up giving you 1/4 inch spacing like everything else.

Seems like if it doesn't fit to the front just about perfect, it will induce twist into the control surface if you tried to pull it in with clecos/rivets. Looks like yours needs to be re-bent at the top of the control surface to allow the bottom to make contact aswell. How many times you can unbend and then rebend would be and "experiment" on its own...!