Flapping in The Breeze
“My impression of Americans is that they are uncomplicated.”
– DR. Men Xuezhi, MD
There isn’t a lot of sophistication to the average American. We are the simple lot that came up with Country Music, Professional Wrestling, and the Pimped-Out Cadillac. From our homes to our cuisine, Americans are simplicity. Visitors from everywhere else are often disappointed that few homes in America are grandiose like Tara, with its sophisticated furnishings and Greek revival architecture. Those visitors on the Amtrak nickel tour would sadly conclude that the simple and prolific 26 by 40 ranch is the top of the American architectural food chain. This simple box is mass manufactured and colonizes America’s uninspired meat and potatoes suburbia, the focus of the unsophisticated repetition of simplicity.
Every American suburban town has its colony of big box stores, usually near a strip of the same lot of franchises, almost always sure to include a McDonald’s, America’s simplified interpretation of a Scottish restaurant, minus the haggis. None of which are like the movie version of Mystic Pizza with its staff of dropped dead beautiful people.
Americans appreciate simplicity so much that we go to complicated lengths to create simplicity. Consider the Keurig Coffee maker. In the 1500 years since Kaldi the Ethiopian goatherd boiled the first bunch of beans, The world has created ever more complicated ways of brewing, filtering, pouring and drinking coffee, creating an $88 billion industry along the way. Things got so bad that American workers were spending too much time in break rooms weighing, scooping, boiling, straining etc. that the complicated Keurig machine was introduced. With it, Corporate America could simplify caffeination and get lazy Americans back to work expeditiously.
Connecticut is no Different
Connecticut firmly holds a lead role in American Simplicity with three straight lines of simplicity. First, a few simple brushstrokes kicked off American impressionism in Florence Griswold’s kitchen in Lyme.
Second, we have Foxwoods, the biggest casino ever, sprawled across a boulder strewn patch of southeastern CT complete with its 2,900 simple to use and lose Slot machines. And then we have, World Wrestling Entertainment, The greatest sporting institution in the American version of the Universe, except perhaps, tractor pulls and monster trucks. Simply put, WWE appeals to the simplest common denominator of global society, that alone is prima facie evidence of how simple Nutmegers are.
“Those(slotted) flaps were easy to design and make and very effective for the level of complexity.”
-Mike Blyth
The Market in America is a reflection of Americans in general, and Americans are a simple lot to be sure. Being a worldly man of culture and perceptive enlightenment, Mike Blyth must have realized he had to do something to make such a sophisticated line of aircraft appealing to the simple, but not stupid American, and thus the American market. Whatever is being marketed there has to be as uncomplicated as possible. Fortunately, Blyth and Co. have met this criterion with the selection of the slotted flaps and simple ailerons. They are mechanically efficient. The hinge brackets on the wings and flaps keep things simple, so to with the ailerons, clearly, Blyth was throwing a bone to the simple American market.
The designers at Tedder field selected plain slotted flaps since their construction is simple, but they also have a slotted feature which draws in the slot feeding casino enthusiasts of the American market, including right here in Connecticut.
Slots allow the high-pressure air from under the wing to join up with the lower pressure air flowing over the wing, so the air doesn’t burble all over the place and ruin lift when the wing whacks the air at a high angle of attack. This is accomplished by making the flaps hinge downward into the high pressure airflow while also creating a slot.
“Those(slotted) flaps were easy to design and make and very effective for the level of complexity.”
-Mike Blyth
Being a worldly man of culture and perceptive enlightenment, Mike Blyth must have realized he had to do something to make such a sophisticated line of aircraft appealing to the simple but not stupid American market, dammit. Whatever is being marketed here has to be as uncomplicated as possible. Fortunately, Blyth and Co. have met this criterion with the selection of the slotted flaps and simple ailerons. They are mechanically efficient. The hinge brackets on the wings and flaps keep things simple, so too with the ailerons, perfect for the American market.
Their construction simple, and interestingly, they also have a slotted feature which draws in the slot feeding casino enthusiasts of the American market, including right here in Connecticut, home of the biggest casino on Earth.
Slots allow the high-pressure air from under the wing to join up with the lower pressure air flowing over the wing, so the air doesn’t burble all over the place and ruin lift when the wing whacks the air at a high angle of attack. This is accomplished by making the flaps hinge downward into the high pressure airflow while also creating a slot.
To do this and survive the whole extra lift event, The TSi flaps have seven small ribs each, three need to be assembled with hinge brackets but the other four come ready except for dimpling of the five or so holes at the front. where we started. Yep, more Pre-assembly drudgery, dimpling, deburring, scuffing, allodining, 2 part epoxy priming and all that, fortunately, it wasn’t as arduous as doing all the main wing parts. Before long we had the lot ready for assembly. There wasn’t a lot of hand wringing to do at that point, it was straight up getting on with clecoing hinge brackets to ribs. Of course, as fate would have it, we had one annoying hiccup in the bracket department.
The middle rib brackets (FL-AHB-002-X-F-0) on both wings were wrong, they didn’t match up with the holes on the ribs of both flaps. It was a bit odd, we could only guess what they were for, other than they didn’t fit our flap ribs.
With some correspondence we got a new set of hinge brackets sent over from Tedder Field. Being at a standstill until they arrived, there wasn’t much to do, except head out on the Haj to Oshkosh.
We had a delightful time at Oshkosh, a highlight was of course the Sling Ding. All the big names were there, JP Shultze, Wayne Tuddon, Jean D’Assonville, Matt Lapinsky and of course His Excellency Mike Blyth. We had it on good authority that at the right inebriation level, Mike would tell us the Granny Story. We cornered him near the beer truck, and though we tried to get him get drunk enough to tell us the story, he wouldn’t talk. Rather, he soon grew weary of our dull, shallow driveling and uninspiring conversation and of our general presence and went off to be with more interesting people. Can’t blame him.
We parted Oshkosh the next day, and upon our return to Connecticut Slingers Patch, the correct hinge brackets had arrived! We could finish off the ribs and set upon assembling the flaps and ailerons with inspired determination.
As with everything else to do with assembling a Sling TSi, the trick with assembling flaps and ailerons skins and all, is to make sure to read and follow directions. It is saddening to think how hard it is for guys to read the directions, but it is definitely worth it, since in this case the pictures aren’t entirely effective with showing a particularly important detail involving a piece of string and some tape. Of course, the directions are difficult for us who have gone to public school in America, but we got the gist.
Here are the directions for aligning the surfaces to the wing pluck gently from page 64 using the latest Cut and Paste technology:
Both Flap and Aileron
1, Bolt the Flap and the Aileron to the wing as shown on the previous page.
2, Attach a string from the wing tip to the Step of the wing as illustrated below
with a dotted line.3, Align the trailing edges of both the flap and The aileron to the string.
4. When the alignment is satisfactory, lower the trailing edge and rivet the most
central hole on the leading edges and check alignment on each assembly.
5. When alignment is achieved, lower the trailing edge and rivet two holes
either side of the first rivet and check for alignment. (Rivet 2, see illustration
below)
6, When alignment is achieved, repeat going outward towards the sides until the
flap/aileron is completely riveted and alignment is achieved. See illustration
below.
7, Go inwards again to the holes that are not riveted and repeat the process
until all hole are riveted and alignment is satisfactory.
8. After alignment is achieved for the both assemblies, all the remaining holes
can be riveted.
–So Sayeth The Minds of Tedder Field
We started with clecoing the bottom of the flaps and ailerons to the ribs, making sure the top edge of the flap/aileron skin overlapped the bottom part of the skin, all according to the Legos instructions. With the ailerons, we made sure to position the Aileron Balance Tube (P/N AI-TUB-001-R/L-F-2), a modified piece of steam pipe, inside the aileron and then did the clecoeing the ribs to the bottom of the skin. The Legos book tells us not to rivet the skin to the tube right then, so we didn’t. Next, we mounted the surfaces to the wing, using the hinge brackets, not a big deal. Insert tab A into tab B sort of thing.
We started with clecoing the bottom of the flaps and ailerons to the ribs, making sure the top edge of the flap/aileron skin overlapped the bottom part of the skin, all according to the Legos instructions. With the ailerons, we made sure to position the Aileron Balance Tube (P/N AI-TUB-001-R/L-F-2), a modified piece of steam pipe, inside the aileron and then did the clecoeing the ribs to the bottom of the skin. The Legos book tells us not to rivet the skin to the tube right then, so we didn’t. Next, we mounted the surfaces to the wing, using the hinge brackets, not a big deal. Insert tab A into tab B sort of thing.
Then came the important part. The instructions were simple enough for us to understand, but like so many things with the entire build, the execution had a small smidgen of frustrating tedium. First, the directions tell us to bolt the flaps and ailerons onto the wing, that’s fair enough. Then do the bit with string and tape. At first we tried bits of electrical tape to hold our nice screaming neon pink string to the trailing edges, but, the tape would loosen and droop, making our first attempt at getting the pieces straight a drunken naval aviator disaster. So we would have to drill out and rerivet.
At that point we evoked admonishment from the GOAT of doing it yourselfing, Red Green. “Duct tape, a handyman’s secret weapon!”
Once again we aligned the string directly with the tippy tip back edge of the wingtip. Then we hit it with the duct tape securing it with a good 3 inches worth down the length. We found fresh brand-new tape is best. Tape that already being used to keep the refrigerator door shut, or hold the car steering wheel in place was not effective. Next we stretched the string across the flap and aileron gap to the step part, aligning it very tipity tip edge of the step part of the wing, getting it good and taut so it was straight with no drooping. Again, we used a good 3 inches of tape on that end. It is easy enough, it was just a bit tricky making sure the string was exactly at the edges. One after thought we could have used the laser alignment tool we used back when we were aligning the elevator, but awe well.
At that point, the process was not too difficult. We followed the directions, starting with twisting the flap and ailerons so the edges lined up with the string, carefully avoiding snagging the string lest we pull it out from under the tape. Then We gently lowered the flap/aileron and put the first rivet in the hole at the middle of the front edge, Which, to us Americans, is the fat rounded edge that is closest to the main part of the wing, NOT the narrow back edge that is close to the string and doesn’t have any rivet holes, (in case we are making you confused).
With that first rivet in the flap, we lifted the flap/aileron back up to the string and then twisted it to bring the rear edge into alignment with the string. We could still twist the flap/aileron with the rivet in the middle hole, but when we did, the friction of the rivet would hold the twist in the new position, which made the flap stay in alignment a little more securely. We still had to lower the control surface down gently for the next rivets. We installed the next pair of rivets 4 holes away on either side of the first rivet, as we see in the legos book. and then raised the flap/aileron up to align the rear edge with the string.
It didn’t take much adjustment to make it straight, and then we lowered it for the next set of rivets. We just kept repeating this and checked the alignment with the string after each pair of rivets. As we kept adding rivets, we had to adjust the alignment less and less, not that we could, as after the first few rivets, the alignment became more secure. It became a bit of a repetitive process then, and we sailed through the rest of it without any worries.
The final step was riveting the aileron weight, no difficulty there, line the holes up and rivet.
With the flaps and ailerons all done, we declared the wings fait accompli, and sent them up into the heights on their twin Sling Wing Slings, under one rested the monolithic box containing the fuselage, our next stage.
Next: A Big Magical Box of Fun