Savannah S Wing Root Door Support Fitment Issues

[BC0979]

I am having an issue with the Fitment of the door support on both wings. Not having assembled a finished Savannah S before I do not know if I should grind off some of the brackets to make it fit.

 

 

This is the root door support and page from THE MANUAL 

 

 

The trailing edge of the support brackets protrudes and prevents the sheet metal from alignment with the holes.

 

 

You can see that the 2 factory alignment holes are off, about 1/2 hole out.

 

***Should I grind off the metal brackets to get the holes to align?

I assume that we want the door support to follow the contour of the wing bottom skin to clear the doors.

OR is it not that critical and I should just drill 2 new starter holes?

 

I also noticed that one wing has A3 holes while the other has A4 holes. Don't understand that one either.

 

If someone could be kind enough to unconfuse me, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Bryan

 

 

[IBob]

Hi Bryan,

1. They seem to have the part numbers for R and L wing muddled on Page 32/36 that you have shown. I noted this in my build, the correct numbers for R and L are on the previous Page (L wing numbers are in brackets). So check you have the correct parts.
2. If you go to the instructions on that Page 31/36, it says at the end 'Note that they have to be filed to fit inside SB003-5/6'.
I believe this is what I did: trimmed/filed them as necessary so that the assembly sits in correctly against the wing rib.

3. Nowhere in my build did I have to move holes. I used correct sized tapered podgers a lot to ease holes into line, and sometimes it was a matter of assembling or clekoing in a different order. But the holes always lined up. I would regard drilling new holes as an absolute last resort.

(4. When you get to it, I had similar problems fitting the seat pans under the adjustable seats: initially I couldn't see how they would fit, but it was just a matter of trimming/filing small amounts off the pan edges at the points where they were binding.)

 

PS: While they refer to this part as the 'root wing door support' the door actually pivots on fixtures on the front and rear door columns. When closed, the top of the door presses against this 'root wing door support' closing the air gap there.

Edited March 17, 2023 by IBob

[BC0979]

IBob,

Thank you for your response.

Yes, I have completed both wings, ailerons, rudder and elevator without relocating any holes. The precise alignment of over 400+ holes is amazing.

It is surprising that such a simple door support requires crude adjustment by grinding an 1/8 inch or so off the aluminum bracket. These end brackets seem very thick for the non-structural application. Seems that a piece of bent sheet metal like the one on the trailing edge of the wing tip would have been adequate, but I have not operated the doors so I will find out then.

 

[facthunter]

Aluminium doesn't grind well. A "Chalked " file is better. Nev

[onetrack]

Use a bar of Stearene wax rubbed on your file or grinding disc, when filing or grinding aluminium, and you'll find you cut or grind faster with less effort, and the file or disc doesn't block up.

[IBob]

Bryan, the door top does close against this with a degree of pressure.
And although I have only ever built the one aircraft, I would be very surprised if there were a kitplane out there where every single part arrived cut, bent and drilled perfectly. I think the Savannah kit does very well in that respect, but there remains a small amount of what I would call 'fitting'.

You're going to love the rear fuselage assembly.....but if you have the extended baggage, be sure to fit that before the rear fuse skins.....)

[BC0979]

With your comments in mind, I ground down the trailing edge bracket which allowed me to match the alignment holes. Moved on to the tip which went well. A marvelous engineering job ICP did on this section.

[IBob]

Very nice Bryan, and good to see they have that sorted out: I have the older f/glass wingtips...which are also an exercise in fitting.