Onex Tail Troubles

[N814W]

Hey folks, email in to Kerry, but I'd rather not waste the long weekend awaiting answers, so here goes.

Having some trouble on my Horizontal. Bought my tail kit in March and had some little issues with the vertical & it looks like some similar stuff happening with the Horizontal as well.

To start with, if I cleco the substructure spars and ribs together and then go to skin, the holes don't like up will at all with the skin where the number 1 rib meets the rear spar:





However, if I remove the clecos holding the rear of T04-01R to the aft spar, the skin lines up nicely, but the rib to spar interface is jacked up. Substructure clecoed, the gap circled in pink does not exist; skin lined up gap pictured is present:





This brings me to my second WTF. My T04-01L & T04-01R are not opposites...at all. The T04-01R has holes in it that match a nonexistent flange on the front spar channel that is illustrated in Rev. D of the drawing:







And the holes in T04-01L don't even come close to matching the corresponding holes in the front spar:





So, do I have T04-01L/R ribs that are messed up or is it something else? Thoughts, opinions?

TIA,
:?

[Bryan Cotton]

On my Waiex I had a couple instances of things not lining up. I checked my parts to the plans. Found that I had a couple tail ribs (the left and right) second one in that were too long. Now I always check part dimensions when I have a fit issue.

[Sonex1517]

Have you gone to the Sonex website to look over the plans revisions?


Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Tails and Wings complete - finishing fuselage.
N1517S reserved

[N814W]

Have you gone to the Sonex website to look over the plans revisions?


Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Tails and Wings complete - finishing fuselage.
N1517S reserved

Robbie,

I have. The flanges are noted as incorrect and "flanges removed" in the correct box of the revision log. However, if you click on my second pic, you can see that it's Rev. D noted on the face of the drawing, yet flanges are still shown(?). Perhaps "Tail Kit" customers get a different set of sheets in their plans?

Technicratic issues are less bothersome, the part fitment issues are another issue altogether...

On my Waiex I had a couple instances of things not lining up. I checked my parts to the plans. Found that I had a couple tail ribs (the left and right) second one in that were too long. Now I always check part dimensions when I have a fit issue.

Bryan,

What did you do when you had these issues? Did you have "old" parts? Did Sonex supply the correct parts? Unfortunately, my Tail Kit plans don't have dimensions for what the detail parts are supposed to be...I just know the parts don't fit properly upon final assembly.

I had a similar issue with the skin fitment on my vertical and ended up fabbing a 1/16" shim for the lowest rib where it met the rear spar to get all the holes to line up. This is a little bit more complicated of an issue, and with the number of perceived errors stacking up, it makes me think that I may have non-conforming ribs.

Thanks!
8-)

[jcondon]

Had the same problem on my HS about one year ago. I reported the issue to Sonex via email, see following:

The skin holes did not line up with the center HS ribs near the rear spar when the skin was cleco’ed to the rear spar. I had to add a .060 shim between the bent angles and the heavy angle that allows the HS to be attached to the fuselage. I can’t see anything I may have done to cause this misalignment and I think the 6 holes in the center ribs that attach the ribs to the bent angles, needs to be moved towards the rear of the rib about .060 inches to correct the misalignment.

Apparently SoneX has not yet made any corrections in this area.

Also; looks like you either have the front spar upside down or the left and right ribs swapped, can't tell which since I don't know if your picture shows the HS from top or bottom. Could be the ribs are mislabeled left and right.

Joe

[Bryan Cotton]

I hacked off the long flange and made/riveted on a new one. Problem identified on page 1 of my thread and resolved on page 2, complete with napkin sketches.
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=578

[N814W]

Had the same problem on my HS about one year ago. I reported the issue to Sonex via email, see following:

The skin holes did not line up with the center HS ribs near the rear spar when the skin was cleco’ed to the rear spar. I had to add a .060 shim between the bent angles and the heavy angle that allows the HS to be attached to the fuselage. I can’t see anything I may have done to cause this misalignment and I think the 6 holes in the center ribs that attach the ribs to the bent angles, needs to be moved towards the rear of the rib about .060 inches to correct the misalignment.

Apparently SoneX has not yet made any corrections in this area.

Also; looks like you either have the front spar upside down or the left and right ribs swapped, can't tell which since I don't know if your picture shows the HS from top or bottom. Could be the ribs are mislabeled left and right.

Joe

That's exactly my issue as well. Exactly. OK, at least I'm not alone! :?

Also, in the third pic, the HS assy is upside down.

Thanks guys!

[N814W]

OK, busy day...

Pulled everything apart and match drilled the errant LH #1 rib to the RH side. It's ugly, but I think it'll work:





Also, fabbed up some 1/16" shims from Lowe's strap stock. Shim installed on the right with only one washer now, per the plans on the left with two washers.





Got the shims installed and the horizontal skinned. The ribs fit the spar brackets nicely now.

[alien]

I had the same problem, wrote to Kerry who simply answered "cut the piece off that doesn't fit"; problem solved. In later kits I saw that the flange no longer formed part of the supllied rib.

It happens pretty often that skin and rib pilot drilled holes do not match. I simply add the same number of rivets for holes that don't fully match, keeping distances in mind. I fill up the predrilled holes with rivets in their non-matching holes for looks. I end up with twice the number of rivets in that area. Only the builder will know and see.

During the Yahoo forum time I wrote a pretty long article with the title: "pre-drilled holes, a mixed blessing" which sollicited a spirited response from Jeremy. I remain convinced that predrills should and must be made in skins for the correct geometry, but should not be done in ribs or just about any other non-skin item. Example the trouble with the turtle decks that don't fit in the Onex.

Robert, Onex 81

[Klimek]

To anyone who can help,
I am building ONEX090 and have lose wing fold bolts and Lower locking pins. I have acquired 2 NAS shear bolts from a supplier in California at quite an expense. They are 1/64" O.S. and have a reamer on the way. The locking pins, however, are lose also and I have no real idea how to remedy that. I suppose I could make 2 from a larger AN7 bolt, weld tabs, machine to size and ream the lower holes. I have been stuck in this quagmire for about 2 1/2 months. I normally don't get too frustrated with mechanical problems because I consider myself a little smarter than an AN6 bolt. This is wearing me out. I felt the play in the prototype tri-gear at Oshkosh and found the left wing had a very uncomfortable amount at the wing tip, the right side had very, very little.
I plan to fly it to KOSH and Crossville, Tn. next year, but not at this pace.
Thanks,
Frank
ONEX090 N290FK reserved
20% to go
Assembling the engine
Installing steam gauges