Got a bit off task today. While tidying up I saw the elevator trim servo and remembered I needed to make a couple of shims to mount between it and the bracket to stop it interferring witht he rivets that hold the bracket in place.

I knocked these out in about 15 minutes.

It’s good to be back working on the plane after a long break.

I riveted the left elevator closed and bent the tabs that close off where the trim tab cutout is. As per the instructions I made a couple of wooden bending blocks, clamped it all together then made the bend. It was finished off with a few passes of the flat set in the rivet gun to make it nice and flat.

Then I finished the riveting off on the left elevator and riveted the tabs closed.

Despite some pretty horrible weather today I managed to get lots done. Got all the bits I prepped yesterday primed and started assembly of the L elevator.

 

 

 

 

 

I have a small problem with the trim tab servo mounting. The servo hits the shop heads of the 2 rearmost rivets that attach the mounting brackets to the access cover. See pics.

A lot of people have this problem, and I tried to prevent it by using NAS1097 rivets for the 2 that are interfering with the servo. These have smaller heads and can be machine countersunk rather than dimpled therefore reducing the amount the shop heads protrude. Still not enough though so I’ll have to make a couple of shims to go between the servo and the brackets - no big deal, just ANOTHER job!

I’m just about ready for another priming session so today I got everything ready. I dimpled the R rudder skin and tidied up the edges on the L elevator skin.

Then I gave all the parts a good rub down with a scotchbrite pad and soapy water. Dried it all off and then a wipe with acetone to remove any remaining grease/fingerprints.

Today I made the stiffeners for the replacement right rudder skin. It was pretty quick second time around.

Mark, cut on bandsaw, smooth cut line on sander and finish on the Scotchbrite wheel.

  I also dimpled the aft few holes in the left elevator root rib. On the right side I used pop rivet dimple dies and vice grips to dimple these hard to reach holes but wasn’t that happy with the resulting dimple. It was a bit shallow and slightly crooked. This time I drilled a #40 hole in the edge of my backrivet plate, countersink it and used the male dimple die in a spare squeezer set holder to make the dimple. A couple of whacks with the hammer and I got a nice result.

I assembled the left and right elevator counterweights, together with the corresponding ribs and counterweight skins. My new compressor isn’t here yet so I couldn’t match drill any of this but I was able to use the drill press to drill the #12 holes for the bolts that attach the lead weights.

 

 

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