Auto Pilot - Roll Servo Installation

Today I started the Auto Pilot Roll Servo installation in the right wing. I am borrowing the idea from Chris Wallen at Wallen Aircraft. He sent me some pics of the installation he did on a customers build assist. I am replicating his install.

Since I only had three pictures to work from and no dimensions, I first I made a paper template approximating what I was looking at in the pictures. Once I had the template as close as I could get it, I used my rivet fan to layout the rivet holes. I transfered the template to a piece of aluminum and cut it out. After rounding the corners, deburring and sanding the edges, I again laid out the rivets and drilled all the holes on the bench using a #40 bit.

Since I couldn't clamp the plate in place to drill the though holes in the rib, I had to hold it in place and drill one hole to get a cleco installed. With the first cleco in, I was able to drill through several more installing clecos as I went.

Unfortunately, I couldn't drill all the holes from the same side because of interference with the aileron and spoiler push rods. This required me to move the plate to the other side of the rib to finish drilling the remaining holes. Once all the holes were drilled with a #40 bit, I began match drilling with the #30 bit and placing the copper clecos.