Empennage nearly done
I dare to say that the empennage is nearly done. I have spent the last two days polishing off little tinkering tasks such as trimming elevator counter-weights and trimming the length of the trim tab pushrod. We did a trial fit of the elevators on the horizontal stabilizer. It looks really good. The elevators and stabilizer are very straight and true (no detectable warp). Tanya and I spent a few moments talking about the failure mode of the elevator counterweights coming loose. That would not be good at all and would cause catastrophic control surface lockup. I’ll probably take some “extra” precautions when finally securing the counterweights.
A couple of tips for the first time you hinge the elevators to the stabilizer: Use bent 16d nails as temporary hinge pins and use the wedges created from the trim tab jig to slightly pry the elevator hinges apart when fitting the elevator. These two things make fitting much easier.
Yesterday I completed the rudder leading edge bend. I thought I had a good plan of attack, but it ended up being just an exercise in persistence. I still don’t think I got enough bend in the second edge as there was still a little (relative term) tension in it when I set the rivets. It will be fine, it was just a pain in the rear and I didn’t gain any wisdom to pass on.
Tomorrow I’ll do a trial fit of the rudder on the vertical stabilizer. I expect this to be pretty uneventful. The only thing left to do (other than fiberglass tips) is to drill the elevator control horns to the center hinge bearing. I imagine that I’ll start trimming the fiberglass parts after that as my wing kit isn’t scheduled to arrive until about the beginning of March. Bummer. I guess I’ll have to use the next month to catch up on the rest of my life :). IE. house repairs, boat prep for the up-coming summer, etc.
