With the plane coming out of paint and the parts fully cured, it was time to start the final assembly of the tail starting with the horizontal stabilizer.
The paint changes the clearance on the mounting locations and the bolts do not fit cleanly without removing the excess paint.
I also needed to remove all of the tape from the trim tab wire harness
The stabilizer mounts easily, bolts are torqued and marked with paint.
Forward mount point (per-torque)
Top view of vertical stabilizer installed and wire hardness and vor antenna cables in view
Hardware marked after proper torque being applied
The elevator has to go on next because the center hing is will not be accessible after the vertical stabilizer is installed.
Installation of the elevator is quite time consuming to install and with the limited amount of space to insert all of the required washers between the hinge points.
You need at least one washer wrench, two are helpful to access the center hinge point due to limited space.
You will also need a magnetic extension to retrieve the numerous washers, lock nuts, and bolts dropped inside the elevator.
Installing the bolt for the center hinge point first is highly recommended before install the outer four bolts.
The bolt holes are not perfectly aligned and you have more room to work with the outer bolts than you do with the middle one.
Start in the middle and work your way out trust me.
Once the elevator is installed you need to attach the eye bolt and elevator push rod tube. This could be done later but it is way easier to do it not and torque the bolts before the vertical stabilizer is installed.
