April 19, 2020 We actually started the left elevator work yesterday, after we finished up the right elevator. Since we were on a roll and thought we knew what we were doing we ended up dimpling the trim tab spar instead of countersinking it as the plans call for. So, that's the 6th part re-ordered.... Continue Reading →

April 18, 2020 Today was the final assembly of the right elevator and overall things went pretty smoothly. We remembered to put in the RTV on the trailing edge stiffeners before closing it up, this is a recommendation in Section 5 to help prevent cracking. Elevator RibsElevator SparRVT on Stiffeners All the rivets were reachable... Continue Reading →

April 16 & 17, 2020 Today was spent riveting all the skeleton parts for the rudder. Most of these rivets were easy to get to with the squeezer, but some took some creativity. There's 4 rivets that go between the R-710 horn brace and R-405 rudder horn that are optional pop rivets. With a longeron... Continue Reading →

April 14, 2020 The day after priming is always focused on cleanup and we never have much energy. Move all the parts around, roll up the booth into the rafters, and clean up the overspray. Clecoing Rudder Spar We also spent a few hours dimpling some skeleton parts on the rudder and cleco'ing things together... Continue Reading →

April 12, 2020 Priming day is a lot of work, today it was two batches due to the number of parts. First, a few hours with soapy water and Scotch-brite pads cleaning all the parts. We decided to skip the Alumiprep and Alodine and just mechanically strip everything down with Scotch-brite. It's an intense scrub... Continue Reading →

April 11, 2020 With the risky part of the trim tab completed successfully, the skeleton needed attention. A few match drilled holes, some countersinking and it's all ready to go. For such a little part, it took a surprising amount of time though. The countersink on the 607-PP trim tab rib definitely knife-edged the holes... Continue Reading →

April 10, 2020 Today was the start of the trim tab. It seems to be the most dreaded piece in the entire tail based on the horror stories on Van's Air Force. We ordered an extra trim tab skin with our last replacement order because we assumed we would mess up the trim tab like... Continue Reading →

April 3, 2020 More of the same today on the other side elevator. Put the skeleton together, added the skin and final drilled all the holes. It's starting to feel like a really routine process but there's a lot of consulting the plans in between each permanent step. Counterweight Ribs & Skin The left counterweight... Continue Reading →

April 2, 2020 Now that the stiffeners are behind us, the next step is building both elevator skeletons. The right elevator is pretty simple, the left elevator includes a cut out for the trim tab and mounting for the trim servo. Paul prepped the trim servo reinforcement plate for the left elevator, primed it and... Continue Reading →

March 31, 2020 The replacement rudder stiffener came in the mail today, so we cut that out, trimmed it up, took it to the wheel and primed it. It installed pretty easy with the back riveting set and that finished up the rudder skins until we prime everything for final assembly. The elevator skins were... Continue Reading →