Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Kit Airplane: Ailerons

 The parts for both ailerons...


Mounting and drilling the front of the ribs wasn't too difficult (especially with the pre-drilled holes). But the two additional ribs for the aileron mass-balance arms required significantly more effort to have them position and spaced appropriately.


Holes drilled for them...


Cut a slot for the mass balance arm to go through. It is bolted inside the aileron to the ribs on either side...


Test fitting the bolts for the mass balance arms with the ribs..


Drilling through the skins to the ribs...


Drilled...


Flipped over with the other side drilled.


Drilling the end rib...


Positioning the hinge...


Hinge drilled...


Marking where to cut the excess piano hinge...


Piano hinge cut...


Cut the rod for the piano hinge and drilled 1/16" holes for future safety wire to keep the rod from sliding out...


Manufacturing the aileron horn...


One aileron horn drilled for mounts and a hole for the control attachment...


Mounted the horn to the side of the aileron... (these holes were enlarged later to their final size)


Drilled holes for the mass balance arms and test fitting them...


And now it's time to completely disassemble the entire thing to deburr and prime...


Including deburring and priming the skins...


Got the bolts for the mass balance arm attached within the aileron to be (hopefully) permanent...



Reassembling the entire aileron...


And began riveting...


More riveting...


Flipped over, more riveting...


And more...


Rivets looking good!


Then the entire process is repeated for the other aileron...



And both ailerons complete!


Saturday, March 29, 2025

Campaign Manager: Map Editor Coming Soon

Next feature update to Campaign Manager is taking some time, but it's a big one - a built-in map editor!

It supports typical image creation functions such as layers and basic drawing tools. However, it also supports painting/spray-painting a large library of textures (grass, dirt, stone, lava, etc) and easily adding a grid overlay.


The drawing tools will continue to expand along with the texture assets. Stay tuned for its releases!

You can download Campaign Manager from:

https://kamoly.itch.io/campaign-manager

Friday, February 21, 2025

Kit Airplane: Flaps

Most recent construction for the Zenith CH-650 has been the flaps.

The ribs nearest to the fuselage have a reinforcement piece for the actuator. Measure out its position and size for holes / shape...


Drilling the holes...


Clamping the ribs into position in the flap skin...


Drilling through the skin and into ribs...


Got a helper with me expanding out the holes...


Both skins drilled...


Positioning the piano hinge for drilling...


The hinge is offset slightly above the edge of the flap...


Drilling the piano hinge...


Looks like I got is pretty straight!


Removed the piano hinges to cut them to size and drill holes for safety wire at the ends...


Disassembling and deburring it all...


Coating all surfaces that touch with Cortec primer...


Including the skins... (I had to do this in the house as it's too cold and humid to do it in the shop.)


Reassembly to rivet!


Progress riveting...


More progress...


And both flaps are (mostly) complete!

The piano hinge still needs to be drilled for the wing, and it was recommended to not rivet the actuator support until the wings are mounted on the fuselage. The ailerons are next though!