Work begins on assembly of the elevator sub-assembly.
Parts were cleaned and prepped using my established procedures for cleaning and treating components prior to assembly.
Parts are drying and should be ready to assemble over the next few days.
Evan Brunye has very detailed and helpful video on the assembly of this part:
Main spar parts
Building up the main spar on the elevator fitting many of the parts together testing fitment and assembly.
Notes:
- Elevator Hinge Bracket 1 must be installed prior to final riveting on the main spar
- Because of the length of this part make sure you have sufficient space to assemble this part.
- Also due to the length, supporting the assembly is really important because the parts wants to twist as you add the outer ribs.
- I also delayed adding the counterweight until I completely finished riveting the skin and had finished match drilling the fiberglass elevator tips.
You may notice the gap between the doubler and the main spar, in a later step the elevator center channel and center shims are installed to build up this section.
Adding ribs and Clecoing the structure together to get a sense of how everything fits.
Closeup of the small gusset plates used on the training edge near the trim tabs.
These gussets fit with only minor match drilling, I know others were not so lucky.
One critical piece is to make sure you install the elevator hinge bracket 1 prior to final riveting on the main spar.
Securing these gussets in-place while installing the skin becomes quite a challenge but I will save that for another post.
