Final Assembly

merry_xmas

I spent the day by myself since Tami was up at her folks for the holidays.  Because I stayed up until 2 am priming the elevator skins, I didn't wake up until NOON!!!  I couldn't believe it, the day is half over already.

Today was fairly productive since I was able to complete the right elevator with the exception of rolling the forward edge.

Riveting the right elevator was an uneventful evolution... That means I won't have to buy replacement parts from Van's on this component.

At the trailing edge of the stiffeners and skins, I put a high temp RTV (safe for aluminum) at the tips.  Van's states to do this to prevent the stiffeners from rubbing and making contact with the opposite side skin/stiffener during vibrations experienced during flight which could result in skin damage, cracking, etc.

RightEleva010
RightEleva011

When I folded the skin over, the stiffeners did not even come close to touching, but I put in the RTV as an added measure of protection.

The elevator counterweight mounting screws were torqued to 25 in-Ibs.

The right elevator turned out really nice.  The two rivet holes that were slightly deformed during the dimpling process on the trailing edge are hardly noticeable.  Now all I have to do is roll the forward edge and rivet.

RightEleva014