Made wing tie down spacers: 1 hour

Fabricated tie down spacers out of bar stock.

 

Drilling lightening holes in spacer bar stock.

 

 

 

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Finished countersinking both spars: 5 hours

Hopefully I'm now finished with countersinking for a while.

Total number of countersinks on both spars: 440.

The small ones aren't so bad but the 120 large countersinks for the fuels tanks were a bit of a pain.

I also started setting up to cut the spacers for the wing tie down mounts.

 

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The countersinking continues: 4.9 hours

I got all the nut plates installed on the left wing spar and also installed the 1/4" nut plates that are part of the wing mount.

I started countersinking for the fuel tank screws on the left spar.

 

Both main spars on the bench!

 

Working on the right spar:

 

The joys of countersinking:

 

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More spar countersinking: 2.4 hours

I finished all the large countersinks for the fuel tank skin on the bottom of the right wing spar.

I will start on the left wing spar next since all the countersink stops are set up.

 

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Started on wings: 6 hours

Finally officially started on the wings today!

The first step involves preparing the main spars by riveting on a large number of nut plates to accept the fuel tank skins and inspection panels. There is also a large amount of precision countersinks to be made.

I got a large amount of the work on the right spar done.

 

Nut plates temporarily attached with clecos. (I quickly found that the clecos had to go on the underside of the flange to fit the pneumatic squeezer in there.)

 

The large countersinks will accept the tank skins dimpled for #8 screws. I took my time with these.

 

All flange nut plates riveted on to right spar:

 

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Cleaned up and stored horizontal stabilizer and elevators: 2 hours

I spent some time going over the all surfaces with a scotchbrite pad then cleaning with mek. After that Britt helped me carry the unit into the basement for storage.

All done with the empennage until fiberglass work! Time to start on the wings!

 

Stored on the wall.

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Elevator install and fit adjustment: 5 hours

It took a while to get the left elevator fitted just right. A lot of mounting the elevator checking movement then removing the elevator making adjustments, re-installing etc. From what I have read the steel hinge parts have some variance in them that makes all the adjusting necessary.

The right elevator went on almost perfectly right away with only minor adjustments.

Shimming the center bearing also went easily.

 

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Drilled elevator horns: 4 hours

My drill bushing showed up so I was able to get the elevator horns drilled.

I did a lot of research online and ran across many builders that had messed this up. To avoid this I checked and rechecked the alignment of the elevators multiple times. The left side bearings needed some adjustment while the right was good to go from the start.

I also had to fine tune the drill bushing to get it to fit exactly in the main bearing. I did this by chucking it in the drill press and using some fine sandpaper.

It took a long time but I got the pilot holes drilled then opened up to 1/4". Everything turned out perfectly aligned. That was the last big step for the elevators.

 

The drill bushing / guide:

Checking elevator alignment ... All good!

 

Ready to drill:

 

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Built rib flange straightener: 2.5 hours

Since I was waiting on my special order drill guide for the elevator horns I went ahead and got my rib flange straightener built. This simple device allows you to quickly and accurately make sure all the rib flanges are at 90 degrees. They are normally a little less than 90 as a by product of the forming process.

This tool is important because the wing has a lot of big ribs that would take forever to check and straighten with the hand seamers.

 

Works great!

 

 

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Closer to finishing empennage: 8.5 hours

Got the hinge pin for the trim servo bent and secured. This gave me a chance to work with my milbar safety wire pliers. They are definitely worth the investment. I also secured the trim servo pushrod to the trim tab.

I started cleaning up the left elevator then installed the rod end bearings in both elevators. It took a fair amount of time to check the fit on the elevators with the horizontal stabilizer. During this process I marked off the areas that need to be trimmed on the horizontal stab to give the elevators proper clearance.

I then took the elevators off and trimmed the horizontal stab per the plans with the dremel then hit it with a file then scotch brite pads. It turned out good but it was time consuming.

The only thing left to do before starting the wings is drilling out the elevator horns for then main elevator bearing. Of course this is more involved than it sounds and involves fabricating some bushings, etc.

Checking the fit.

 

Checking travel with temporary hinge pins.

 

Rear spar flange pre-trim:

 

Post trim:

 

Full travel now available.

 

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Rolled right elevator and tested trim system: 3.7 hours

Rolling the right elevator leading edge was the quickest so far. I believe it's also the last edge I will have to roll on the airplane.

The elevators are both finished. The next step is mounting the hinge bearings that will attach them to the horizontal stabilizer.

I also tested the electric elevator trim travel and it looks good.

 

Riveting the right leading edge:

 

It's good to have both of elevators almost complete. The 9 volt battery is for testing the trim servo. It runs a little slow on 9 volts but its easy to work with.

 

Full nose up trim.

 

Full nose down trim.

 

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