I did a lot of work on the flaps earlier when I mounted the ailerons and wing tips, but now that the wings are on, I’m able to fit the flaps to the fuselage. The plans and prepunched skin provide a starting point for the flap push rod, but the shape and size of the finished hole is unique to each plane. A little research on the web provided some clues, like this RV Builder’s Hotline article. With that, I drilled a half inch hole on the side and bottom and filed out the edge to connect the two. Then I enlarged the hole enough to get the bottom rod end bearing through. Now the flap can come up enough to align with the properly rigged aileron.
But, then I found the flaps could not retract completely because the bottom flap skin was touching the bottom of the fuselage prematurely as the flap came up. Some research on the VAF forums indicated this was not unheard of, and could be resolved by putting a slight joggle in the bottom flap skin. After I modified my hand seamers to accept the width of the flap skin, I was able to work a nice joggle into the inboard end of each flap.
Bowen Aero 