Riblet Complete
Since today is the day before Thanksgiving, I had some “non RV” tasks on the list, I decided to get at least one thing done. That one thing would be match drilling the riblet to the skin.
The part I stewed over is how many holes and where they should be located. The riblet is just long enough to me that it warranted 3 rivets on each side and one on the small tabs. Others have used only 2 per side, but I kinda felt that it left the ends of the flanges with too much length from the rivet to the edge. I seems that the size is right in the middle of going with 3 or 2 rivets. I ultimately decided that 3 was it for me. I spaced them at 1 1/8th” from each other. This caught both ends of the flanges and tucked in the center. I think it will look just fine.
All clecod in, the riblet is nice and straight from the trim spar to the trailing edge bend. It is ready for dimpling with the rest of the parts and the skin and then on to elevator assembly.