Safety Notice

Van's sent me an email earlier today informing me about a problem with some welds on a critical part. Critical as it would affect the control of the aileron connected to that part if it broke. The part number is WD1215-L/R-PC and it is the torque arm that makes the connection between the fuselage internal actuators and the flaperon actuator tab. This is the connection that uses nylon brackets as a brace around the aluminum actuator arm on the flaperon so the wing can be removed easily. A failure in this part could certainly lead to a fatal accident and as I hadn't gotten to the stage yet where I had to use these parts, it was easy to check them right away.
Locating them was a bit trickier until I found out that they were part of the Finish Kit. All that stuff still sits in the crate it came in, so all I had to do was search in there. No problem found on the welds. They don't just look good, I also squeezed the flanges that were weld to the tube quite hard to make sure the weld wouldn't give in with a little force applied. That's about as complex of a test as I can do on this part.

I also checked the quality of the priming job I did yesterday and I found some visible surfaces that showed slight runs from my heavy coating. I sanded those runs and will have to spray these again. I also found out that I have to spray the longerons now as the last match-drilling on them will be done when they are already partially installed. To reduce the overspray on the longerons and for the small touch up areas I just sanded, I'll use my little detailer HVLP gun that came with the bigger one that gave me so much trouble. The detailer gun though worked like a charm and it will certainly have a smaller and finer fan than my usual gun.