I started out today by bending the elevators.  I was much more careful bending them this time to avoid the errors of bending the rudder.  The bends came out perfect!

On a side note, here is my new vertical stab holder I built.  I plan to expand on this and hang the rudder there as well.  I’m trying to plan ahead now that the wings are within sight…. despite not being ordered.

Final drilling the spar reinforcement plates.

The counterweight skin and rib.  This was a collasal pain in the butt.  The counterweight skin did not match the holes in the two adjoined ribs.  After consulting Van’s Airforce archives, I found that this is a common issue.  Some people recommended just drilling the holes out resulting in slightly imperfect or oblong holes.  With the added stress of the counterweight I did not want to reduce the strength with less than perfect holes.  The holes on the ribs were wider than on the counterweight skin.  In order to reduce that distance the radius between the flange and the web of the ribs needed to be reduced.  

I used the dead blow hammer to reduce the web-flange radius.  This took quite a bit of trial and error but eventually worked.  Another trick here is to cleco the skin in place without the counterweight.  After all the clecos are installed, then shove the counterweight in between.  The entire process took some finesse but eventually I had all the holes lined up and every cleco properly seated. 

Some pictures from the final skeleton.  Next step will be to cleco the skins and begin final drilling…