Fri 27 February 2004 |
| The day started with some simple cleanup and dimpling of the trim tab components. | 
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| I then marked out and drilled the servo mount for the electric elevator trim. | 
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| The above parts plus the trim hinge needed priming and the wind wasn't too bad so I took the opportunity to clean, etch and prime. One of the advantages of rattle cans. | 
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| Up to this point the trim tab had gone OK. The riveting of the trim horn however didn't go well. The penultimate aft rivet had to be bucked, but the gun slipped and put a small dent in the skin. | 
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| The aft most rivet however was even worse. The only option we could use for bucking is the back riveting bar, this is not a good thing to try unless the rivet is fully on the bar. As we found out it puts dents in the skin (AGAIN!). I sent a question to the email list, although I expect the general answer will be 'pop rivet' it, we will see. | 
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| Then it was onto the elevator and the bending of the tabs. The first step was to make another compound wedge. | 
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| This was then clamped and shaped with a wooden block. The result came out well with a clean bend line. | 
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| The tab was still too big, even after trimming so more filing & sandpaper. | 
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| This is how we have been fixing the wedges into the skins. A loop of compound tape all the way round helps hold the wedge inside the skin tightly. | 
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| With all the trimming done, flip the skin and setup for the top tab. The bend went well - 10th bend was the first one that looked and worked really well. Oh well the next project will be easier. | 
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| I mocked up the elevator & trim tab. The finished trailing edge was reasonable but the inboard end of the trim seemed a little high. I'll wait until the elevator is riveted together to work out if the trim tab is a problem. | 
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| The overall look of the left elevator. Lots of stress and hassle for that little (important) bit. | 
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| This is the trim tab / elevator gap. It 'should' be parallel. It is difficult to tell until the tabs are riveted together and that needs to wait until after the elevator skin is riveted unto its skeleton, which in turn needs the pro-seal........ Wednesday we should get the pro-seal!, until then - something else will be on the todo list. | 
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