Riveted Spars and Ribs in Left Elevator

I started off the day by taping the trailing edge to the bottom right elevator skin with the 3M VHB. tape.

I also completed the trim servo assembly. I need to order a crimper to terminate the wires from the trim servo with the supplied micro molex connector. I also need to get a label maker to label all the terminations.

Then my new squeezer set from Aircraft Spruce showed up. It’s nice having them relatively local. If I order by 4:00 they’ll ship same day and shipping via UPS ground gets it here next day from Peachtree City.

With the new squeezer sets I was able to complete the riveting of the hinge portion of the skin to the aft spar.

I essentially completed all of the steps that I did to the right elevator yesterday to the left elevator today. So now both elevators are ready to have the aft ribs glued and the trailing edges riveted.

Today’s Time (hours):	6.0
Empennage Time (hours):	118.5
Total Time (hours):	118.5

Riveted the Forward Spar Assemblies

Riveted the gusset to the left root rib and riveted the inboard and outboard halves of the tip ribs together. Spent a bit of time with a square and hand seamers tweaking to ensure everything is straight.

Riveted the tip ribs to the spars. Riveted the hinge reinforcement plates and nut plates to the spars.

Clecoed and riveted the counterweight skins to the tip ribs.

Riveted the elevator horns to the spars.

Bruins vs. Blackhawks in the winter classic on tv… taking a break to watch a little hockey.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.5
Empennage Time (hours):	106.0
Total Time (hours):	106.0

More Work on Elevators

Jared Solomon and Wes Greer stopped by today and helped move the elevators along. I really appreciate having experienced builders helping me out. Things went really fast and their advice is incredibly valuable. Had lot’s of fun building together, too. Thanks guys!

Today we final drilled the tip ribs to one another and to the counterweight skins. We cut the foam trailing edge and trim tab ribs. We trimmed and deburred the trim tab skins. We trimmed the right elevator aft spar. We bent the closeout tabs on the left elevator skin. We fit and drilled the trim tab hinge. We clecoed everything together and fit/trimmed the elevator trailing edges.

Jared and Wes went home and I continued building. Not even ten minutes unsupervised and I screwed up! I misunderstood the interface between the trailing edge extrusion and the elevator wing tip. I removed way too much material from the trailing edge. I didn’t realize that the wing tip would be trimmed and butt up against the trailing edge. Had I read forward to the “Empennage Fairings” section, I would have understood how this went together. Oh well… Ordered a new trailing edge from Van’s.

Today’s Time (hours):	5.0
Empennage Time (hours):	85.0
Total Time (hours):	85.0

Primed and Assembled Horizontal Stabilizer

Scuffed and primed the skins, ribs, stringers and center web.

Riveted together the inboard ribs, web, and stringers.

Clecoed and riveted the ribs to the front spar

Clecoed and riveted four nose ribs to the skins. Special thanks to Jared Solomon for lending me his HS cradles. Also for the awesome flight flight yesterday in his RV-14. Makes me want to build faster.

Clecoed the forward spar and associated substructure to the skins. Ready for final riveting. Should have the HS buttoned up tomorrow!

A very satisfying day of progress!

Today’s Time (hours):	5.0
Empennage Time (hours):	69.0
Total Time (hours):	69.0

Countersunk spar flanges and Stringers and dimpled skins

Machine countersunk the flanges of both spars.

Used the blunted soldering iron to remove the blue plastic from the rivet lines. Then used a file and sand paper to clean up the edges. They were pretty rough.

Used the trusty DRDT-2 to dimple the skins. Good upper body workout. Lots of holes!

Tada…

Ribs, stringers, and skins all ready for scuff and prime.

Today’s Time (hours):	3.0
Empennage Time (hours):	64.0
Total Time (hours):	64.0

Forward Spar Assembly Complete

Riveted the doubler and spar caps to the forward spar.

I received the torque wrench I ordered from Amazon and torqued the nuts securing the inboard hinge bracket to the rear spar.

Both forward and rear spar assemblies completed. On to the ribs…

Today’s Time (hours):	2.0
Empennage Time (hours):	58.0
Total Time (hours):	58.0

Rear spar assembly complete

Scuffed the forward spar and primed all of the forward and rear spar parts.

Riveted the front spar doubler. Used the squeezer for most of these.

Riveted all of the hinge brackets. Used the gun for these. My riveting skills have improved markedly. I haven’t had to drill any rivets since working on the rudder.

I bolted the inboard hinge bracket to the spar per the plans and realized I don’t have an in/lb torque wrench. So I ordered one from Amazon along with some tamperproof marker paint so I can keep track of which nuts have been torqued and easily inspect them later.

Off to FLL for work for the next few days. So no further progress expected until later in the week.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.5
Empennage Time (hours):	56.0
Total Time (hours):	56.0

Horizontal Stabilizer Front Spar

Got the font spar to the point where it’s ready to be scuffed and primed. This was way more work than it looked like in the plans. It all started with the spar caps. They had to be trimmed and deburred. Then they’re match drilled to the spar web. Then disassembled, deburred, reassembled. Then they are match drilled to the spar flanges, disassembled and deburred. There were approximately a million and one holes drilled and deburred in these things.

Then on to the spar doubler. The usual drill (no pun intended)… Deburr edges, fit, cleco, final drill, disassemble, deburr holes.

Countersunk twelve of the holes on the doubler.

And here are all the front spar parts ready for scuff and prime.

Today’s Time (hours):	5.0
Empennage Time (hours):	53.5
Total Time (hours):	53.5

Horizontal Stabilizer Rear Spar

Started work on the horizontal stabilizer today. The first part involves preparing the rear spar.

Screen Shot 2019-05-27 at 9.59.23 AM

Deburred the rear spar and the rear spar doubler with the Scotch Brite wheel, files, a deburring tool and god old fashioned sandpaper. Got all the edges and lightening holes nice and smooth. Clecoed the rear spar doubler to the rear spar. Final drilled all the holes.

Clecoed the 8 outboard hinge brackets to the spar and final drilled.

Machine countersunk the two holes in the center of the spar.

Fit, clecoed, drilled, disassembled, deburred, reassembled, and riveted the inboard hinge bracket assembly with the flange bearing in the middle.

Deburred and scuffed everything. Ready for primer. I’m only going to prime the inside of the spar. the outside will be painted when I paint the airplane. I neglected to account for this when I built the VS and rudder. I’m assuming the primer can be stripped from the outside of those spars in preparation for painting.

Today’s Time (hours):	2.5
Empennage Time (hours):	48.5
Total Time (hours):	48.5