Today, I decided I needed a break from hitting the college books.  After about 8 weeks of not doing any real serious work on the airplane, I decided that I would pick back up on the left elevator and trim tab.  After scratching my head for about an hour trying to remember where I had left off, I started to align the trim tab hinge.  My thought process here was that the portion of the hinge that swivels (i.e.: hinge eyes) needed to clear the trailing side of the left elevator trim spar and skin.  If I moved the hinge forward of where you see it below (top of picture), I was worried about the metal to metal rubbing between the trim tab hinge half and the elevator spar/skin.  Van's could save me a lot of headaches if they had a few more pictures in their instructions.  I am sure glad there are other builders out there who put up web sites with plenty of pictures.

After I thought I had the hinge arrangement figured out, I went on to priming everything.  Like I have done several times before, no new developments when priming these components.

The pictures below, kind of jump forward to the completed trim tab.  I did not need to use any blind rivets on the trim tab except to rivet the trim tab bends on the side.  Three rivets on the right side and two on the left.  In the picture below, the trim tab doesn't look to bad.

Little blurry here, but as far as I can tell, the trailing edge of the left elevator and trim tab are very straight.  I don't have any concerns with that...

The picture below shows one of my concerns (probably more of a cosmetic issue than a flight issue).  There is about 1/16" to 1/8" difference in the trailing edges of the trim tab and the left elevator skin.  If  you look at the hinge arrangement I was discussing above, it appears that there would have been enough room to move the trim tab forward enough to take out that difference without the trim tab hinge eyes rubbing against the trim tab spar or elevator skin.  This was challenging to see when putting the dang thing together with cleco's.  Now that I have got it together, I know how I would like to adjust it.  FIGURES!!!

Here is another angle of the trim tab to elevator edge.  If you look at my trim tab and elevator tab bending log entries, it will show how I was unable to get a really nice and straight bend on the left elevator tabs.  After mounting the trim tab, I have Van's minimum clearance and this don't look to bad from the top.

The bottom looks like crap.  My only saving grace here is that it is on the bottom and not easy to see by the casual observer.

On the picture below, I guess what I am trying to show you is that the lower trim tab skin will rub (or bind) against the trim tab spar when the trim tab is lowered.  I see other builders have just put a slight bend in the lower trim tab skin in order to prevent those two surfaces from rubbing.  Next time I take the trim tab off, I will use the hand seamer and put a slight bend in it.

Alright, so far my efforts today have gotten me luke warm results.  When I put the trim tab together with the electric servo, I started getting PO'd (next two pictures show you why).  Here you see the trim servo mounted to the bottom of the elevator with the connecting rod to the trim tab.  Now this is not adjusted which only means the situation is worse than it is in the picture.  Currently the servo is fully extended and the connecting rod drags on the elevator skin.  I am going to need to remove yet more material so the connecting rod can clear.  I had already removed what I considered to be a lot of material here.

When I attempted to mount the trim servo to its bracket, the bracket was so short (aft side) it couldn't be fully tightened down as the trim servo rubs on two rivets that secure the servo bracket to the plate. I re-squeezed those two rivets to see if I could gain any additional clearance.  It helped, but I could not gain enough clearance.  Looking around the net, other builders have shimmed the trim servo with washers between the trim servo and the bracket.  This will also compound my connecting rod clearance illustrated above.  One builder commented that Van's had told them that this is a common occurrence.  If it is that common, why don't they fix their brackets?  I can't believe that it would be that hard for them to fix the fabrication of the bracket.

I am considering re-doing the left elevator all together.  I am somewhat disappointed with my results on the trim tab area of the left elevator.  Before, I get that extreme, I think I will take some time to look at other RV's to see what they have done in this area.  I definitely could do this better in a fraction of the time the next time around. 

I am off to Dallas today for a week of training on protective relaying.  Between that and my remaining college work, it will probably be a couple of weeks before I find the time to get back to doing anything on the plane.