My goal today was to complete the elevators.
I started out by trimming the trim tab hinges. The hinge pin is removed before trimming as it needs to extend past the end of the hinge to be safety wired to the rear spar.
I then riveted the hinge halves to the elevator rear spars with the pneumatic squeezer.
To resolve the oil canning in the top skin of the right elevator, I used a shim and a clamp to deflect the rear spar slightly in the downwards direction. The idea here was to slide the top skin slightly to the left while riveting towards the inboard side of the elevator. The goal was to use just enough deflection to remove the compression from the skin once the spar was relaxed, but not enough to leave a deflection in the spar.
This process worked perfectly and removed all of the oil canning. All panels ended up with a consistent amount of tension and the spar remained straight. Success!
I then riveted the hinge halves to the trim tabs. I inserted the pins frequently as I went to make everything was well aligned.
The trim tabs operate smoothly and are very well aligned with the trailing edge.
Next, I bent the hinge pins as described in the plans, to allow them to be safety wired to the rear spar.
I didn’t drill the 1/16″ safety wire holes in the rear spars as I need a longer drill bit to get in there. I’ll deal with those later when I assemble the empennage.
Goal achieved, elevators are complete!
I then stowed them on my ceiling storage rack until the time that I begin the assembly of the empennage.
