Thorp Air Command - T18.net

A previous owner did some damage to my aileron. Though it flies fine, I would like to repair it before airventure this year. I was speaking to an A&P friend and he suggested that I should see if someone has a complete aileron that I could buy from an unfinished project or a scrap plane rather than rebuilding mine.

Mine is all flush riveted, but aside from that, they all should be the same, right?

Let me know if you have anything or have any better ideas for me.

Thanks!

_________________
Marty G
N50LE
YouTube Channel
martygrosse@yahoo.com

You will find that the hinge lugs have changed over the years. Measure yours before you buy.
Cubes

Concur with what Cubes said . I had to build a new hor. stab trim tab and found out they don't make the plans called for hinge P/N anymore . I carefully drill out the old hinge rivets from the damaged tab and reused that "good hinge ." You may be lucky enough to find some one with a surplus piece of the old P/N hinge... if in fact you need to replace the hinge ? BADA BING , BADA BOOM !

RB
NX115RX

Thanks for the tip, guys!

_________________
Marty G
N50LE
YouTube Channel
martygrosse@yahoo.com

Marty,
If the ribs and the beam are not damaged just replace the skins, it's not that hard of a job. I removed and replaced one skin at a time to keep the alignment the same. I found that my aileron skins were 1/16" to 1/8" larger than the plans called out.

If you go the purchase route there is a difference in size between the standard wing and the folding wing

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Bruce Finney
N18JF T-18C #262
Yelm, WA USA

The aileron is literally one the the easiest parts to make. I'd definitely try to rebuild it as the first option.
Trying to get the beam just right for both ailerons eluded me and I wound up doing the beam part of mine differently to hide the rivets, but I digress...
Not sure how yours is damaged, but if the beam is in good shape, then the rest of the aileron is really simple. Drill out some rivets and use the existing skins as templates. If one of the end ribs is damaged, cut a triangle of wood and use it to form a new one.
Good luck with it.