SonexBuilders.net

Ok, so here is my situation... The guy I bought my project from decided to use solid driven rivets wherever practical. Looks really good but I'm torn between which way to go now. Do I stick with the solid rivets to make the project "complete" (maybe increase resale value???)? OR Since I would like to actually fly the thing sometime just start using standard pull rivets? Somebody have .02 on this?

Next situation is the acro ailerons... I haven't paid the $100 plans transfer fee yet so I'm in the dark as to what the different is between the standard ailerons and acro ailerons. I understand they're bigger and yield higher roll rate but I'm talking about actual parts and assembly. I plan on transferring plans soon but until then I don't want to screw anything up... Thanks guys.

I think it depends on how far the project has come.

I like driven rivets. They are not a barrier. They may add a little time to your project with the main issue being you will need or want a helper some times. Having said this, I am using the pops for simplicity. Plus my 12 year old is a pop riveting fiend. We get the parts laid out and he zaps them together. They are great for building with kids. After this we will finish my hummelbird and that is driven rivets except as required for some closeouts.

I am going for acro ailerons. They give you long flap and aileron skins. As a simplification you trim and build the flaps short if you want acro ailerons.

I'm also going to aerobatic ailerons, though I haven't built them yet. In looking forward in the plans, there appears to be no hardware or parts difference, other than the fact that you need 2 control surface skins (per wing) of sufficient length to cut down to proper size for flaps/ailerons. They use the same number of ribs in the kit (I think 1 or 2 ribs from the old flap go into the larger aileron). Basically you end up taking about 16" off the flap and adding 16" to the aileron, making them very similar in length.

The aileron bellcrank and pushrod locations stay the same (as do the flap pushrods.) You do end up having to make a small cutout in the aileron for the pushrod, since it comes through 16" from the inboard end of aileron rather than the inboard rib of the aileron.

Honestly, unless I'm missing something, I think that it wouldn't be hard to retrofit aerobatic ailerons/flaps on an existing sonex, as long as the piano hinges lined up correctly.

Edit: Since the flaps pivot from the bottom and the ailerons from the top, I think the only difference in the way the wings are built is where the piano hinges go.

Thanks for the comments guys. I think I may just go with pull rivets, I don't have any of the solid rivet hardware anyways. Thanks for looking ahead in the plans as well Ryan about the acro ailerons-it seems like the guys who have put them on really like them.

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Mike, thanks for the comments and information. I may just talk to the guys up at Sonex and see what can be done about the aileron counterweight. I talked to the gentleman I bought my project from today and he suggested I buck where I can; like the internal wing structure etc. Where I don't have room to buck I should pull. So I suppose my project will end up being a combination of both, and I'll be perfectly content with that. Thanks guys.