Elevators

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… Read More »Elevators Complete!

Back to work on the elevators today… I started by riveting the trailing edges. I used the same technique that I used with the rudder by partially back-riveting and then setting with a mushroom set. I then set the remaining… Read More »Elevators Not Quite Finished

My goal today was to get the foam ribs prosealed into both the tabs and the elevators. I also decided to use Proseal for the trailing edge wedge instead of the VHB tape that I used on the rudder trailing… Read More »Elevator Trailing Edges and Trim Tabs Continued

I riveted the counterbalance ribs to the elevators this evening. Everything was square when I clecoed things up and I kept an eye on the alignment while riveting. The ribs are first riveted to the shear clips and to the… Read More »Elevator Counterbalance Riveting

I continued with the riveting of the elevators this evening. The next step was to cleco the front spar assemblies into place and rivet them to the rib flanges with blind rivets. This is followed by riveting the skins to… Read More »Elevator Front Spar Riveting

I started riveting the second skin to each elevator today. I started by inspecting everything one last time before closing things up. Riveting along the rear spar requires a special bucking bar. The plans have you start on the left… Read More »Elevator Riveting Continued

Back to work. We started work on riveting the elevator skins today. We placed the rivets in the elevator skin holes that attach the ribs to the skins and we taped them in place with back-riveting tape. We then flipped… Read More »Elevator Skin Riveting

The primer finished drying and I’m now back to riveting. I riveted the elevator tip ribs together and attached the tip rib skins using the pneumatic squeezer. I then attached the reinforcement plates and nut plates to the front spar… Read More »Elevator Riveting

I haven’t worked on the plane much this week so I decided to power through the remaining work on the elevator parts this evening and get them ready for riveting. I started with match drilling the trim tab holes. I… Read More »Elevators Prepped for Riveting

I had one remaining item on the elevator skins which was to mask and scuff the sections where the trailing foam ribs will be attached. I went ahead did this for both the trim tabs and the elevator skins at… Read More »Foam Ribs and Trim Tabs