Elevators

Elevators 30 (4.0 hrs)

This entry was posted in Elevators Empennage on by

I really hated rolling leading edges until today.  Well, I still hate it, but not as much.  I’ve been using a pipe given to me by another builder that is about 1″ in diameter.  It works well, but I was still getting a ripple. My solution was to use two pipes.  A smaller diameter pipe, and the original 1″ pipe.  I started with the smaller pipe and make sure that the edge got a good bend and then moved up to the larger pipe.  This worked extremely well.

Here in the first photograph you can see my first attempt with rather substantial wrinkling between the clecos.

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And here are the results using two pipes for the roll.  What a difference!  I don’t call anything perfect, but this is darn close!

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I redid the original bend with the smaller pipe and was able to take out many of the wrinkles, but now all as you can see here. 20130921-141821.jpg

Completed products.20130921-141834.jpg

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I temporarily installed the elevators onto the horizontal stab for storage.  They’re on backwards I might add, but it was easier to put them on this way with the way I had the bench setup.  Its just temporary so it doesn’t matter.  There are still several items to complete on the empennage but they seem to make more sense for when its attached to the fuselage.  (Things like the elevator trim servo, drilling the horns, etc)20130921-141856.jpg

Elevators 29 (1.0 hr)

This entry was posted in Elevators on by

Rolling the leading edges is officially my least favorite thing to do.  In other words… it stinks.  I’m not going to go into much detail.  Suffice it to say that the right elevator leading edge is about 50% done, but it took entirely too long to get this far.  With my 1″ pipe the edges weren’t coming together in the way I would like.  I used my hands and got it close.

The endeavor got me thinking.  The pipe seems to bend it in the middle.  Near the edge and near the spar the aluminum is straight.  What I’ve decided to try is a couple other pipes of different diameter to get the bend closer to the way I want before riveting.  I’ll tackle that this weekend. 20130918-192851.jpg20130918-192905.jpg20130918-192921.jpg20130918-192913.jpg

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A little bit of everything… (3.0 hrs)

This entry was posted in Elevators Empennage Plans on by

I took today off work, because, well I can.  So I started out working on the trim tab.  I didn’t get very far.  I match drilled the brackets shown here.20130809-175008.jpg

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Then I removed the pin from the hinge and carefully reviewed the plans.  The instructions state to clamp the hinge in place using the measurements on DWG 4.  I only see two measurements on DWG 4.  After I made sure those measurements were ok… they actually don’t make much sense… I clamped and drilled.  20130809-175026.jpg

The very first hole is shown here.  It is supposed to be, and is 1/4 inch from the edge as shown.  But the edge distance towards the back of the hinge doesn’t look good to me.  At this point I stopped and reviewed the plans again.  I don’t see anything that I’m missing.  Next stop VAF and Mike Bullock’s site.  From the pictures on Mike’s site, mine looks fine.  Except the edge distance.  I was thinking it was Saturday so I gave Mike a call.. in retrospect since its Friday he was probably at work.  Either way he agreed to meet me at the airport when he is next there to go over the trim tab.  This seems to be the part everyone has trouble with, so it’s best if Mike give’s me a hand, and his help is much appreciated. 20130809-175036.jpg

With Mike agreeing to help, I stopped work on the trim tab.  The other day I brought one of my white boards from my office to the shop to keep track of my “To Do” and “Shopping” lists.  I started on my to do list.20130809-175043.jpg

First up was finishing the few remaining rivets on the rudder.  Since I last did the rudder I’ve bought two tools that will allow me to complete this.  I had to pop rivet the last one, but I’m quite ok with that. 20130809-175050.jpg

This rivet in the corner of the elevator horn was a real beast to get to.  I tried several different setups with my squeezers with no luck, so I had to resort to banging the rivet with the gun and bucking bar.  The space was very tight and holding the bucking bar was difficult.  In the end, I got two proper rivets installed. 20130809-175058.jpg

Storage has been on my mind lately.  With the wings arriving at the end of the month, I’ve been clearing space and planning storage.  I temporarily attached the rudder to the vertical stab and hung them both back up. While I had the vertical stab down, I should have replaced the two rivets that need to be replaced, but of course, I forgot.  Soon…20130809-175107.jpg

I also moved the mounting bracket for the horizontal stab up much higher.  I’m planning to also temporarily attach the elevators to the stab for storage.  20130809-175114.jpg