Tonight I set about making the rib-let for the elevator.  I started by lining the trim tab up with the elevator, and determining the amount that needed to be cut off from the elevator tabs.  My trim tab is not perfectly straight, so I made sure to match that line.  Without a square I don’t think anyone will notice.  (yeah, right…) Then I cut off the tabs.  This was pretty painful considering all the work that went into making those tabs.  This whole tab system for the trim tab and elevator is pretty painful, and compared to the rest of the kit so far, fairly difficult… and needlessly so.  I think there are a couple other ways van’s could tackle this that would be just as effective and far easier.  I bet the RV-14 trim tab won’t be done like this…  After cleaning up the cuts, I again lined up the trim tab to check the clearances.  The alignment and clearance is perfect.  My first rib-let came out darn close to perfect, but I can see a few improvements that I can make.  It only took 15 min, so I might as well bang out another one. I’m tired now, but I’ll post more details of how I made the rib-let later. 

Here are the tabs marked for cutting. 

After cutting…

Cleaned up enough to check for clearance and alignment. 

Clearance looks good. 

I meant to take pictures of the rib-let before I bent it, and with it installed, but I was caught in the moment.  Here’s I’ve unbent it by hand to read the measurements I had used when I make the next rib-let.  The measurements for width / angle were good, but I want to shorten the length, properly align the ends, and slightly change my bend technique.  I plan to knock this out tomorrow.