Empennage

Things are beginning to come together now and it's beginning to look like an elevator. Today I had to un-cleco the E-713 counterbalance skin in order to remove the E-714 counterweight. Then I put the E-713 back together with the clecos. Then I cleco'd the E-709 root rib to the spar and final drilled to #40 the E-709 to E-702. Then I got the elevator skin E-701-R and cleco'd to the understructure. Next I had to take the clecos out of the E-709 to E-702 so I could cleco the WD-605-1-R elevator horn to the E-702 and E-709. Next step was to drill the skin to the understructure. With that done the next step was to disassemble the elevator. Then I dimpled the E-713 for the screw heads that attach the counterweight, and machine countersunk the counterweight for the dimples in the E-713. Next step was to machine countersink the E-709 holes on the forward face of the spar as E-709 will be riveted with flush head rivets so the elevator horn can be mounted flush with the forward face of the E-702 spar. That's as far as I got today but it seems like pretty good progress.

3 Hours

Total hours on project = 128

Empennage

Today I started preparing the right elevator, actually I worked on both the left and right. I clecoed and drilled the E-601PP and E-611PP reinforcement plates and corresponding platenuts to the E-702 Spar. Then I prepared the E-703 end ribs and E-704 counterbalance ribs by fluting and edge finishing them. Next step was to cleco and drill the E-703 end rib to the E-704 counterbalance rib and then cleco and drill them to the E-702 Spar. After I got that done I had to remove the ribs from the spar. Next, I placed the E-714 counterweight on the forward end of the E-703 and E-704 as shown on the drawing 5, view F-F. I clecoed the E-713 counterbalance skin to the E-703 and E-704 overtop of the E-714 counterweight. My last action today was to drill the two #12 holes in the forward face of E-713 through the counterweight and the E-703 and E-704 ribs. Of course, this was all done on both the left and right elevators.

3 Hours

Total hours on project = 125

Empennage

I started today by building the bending tool that helps make the trailing edge bend for the elevators. Basically that was just attaching two 2x8's together with a few door hinges. Once that was done I did the bend on both the left and right elevators. I taped the 3/16" dowel rod in the radius of the bend to help keep it smooth and then just applied pressure on the elevator in the bending tool. I thought it might require some finesse but it turned out that I just bent it as far as I could to achieve the proper bend. After I finished I used a straight edge to see if it had any bulges, but it appears to be smooth and proper.

1 hour

Total hours on project = 122

Empennage

Today I back riveted all the stiffeners to the E-701-L/R skins and then riveted the E-615PP Trim Reinforcement Plate to the left skin. The next step is to bend the trailing edge of the elevators so I had to make a trip to the hardware store to get a couple of 2X8's and some door hinges to build a tool to make the bend. I also picked up a 3/16" dowell rod to use in the radius to keep the bend straight and smooth. I didn't have time to build the bending tool this afternoon so that will be something for my next session.

2 Hours

Total hours on project = 121

Empennage

Continued to work on the elevators today. Not a lot to take pictures of today but I did manage to deburr all the holes in the elevator skins and also the edges. Then I dimpled all the holes in the stiffeners and the skins and got so far as to rivet the platenuts on the trim reinforcement plate

4 Hours

Total hours on project = 119

Empennage

Spent a couple of hours deburring holes and edges on the stiffeners this afternoon. Seems like I spend more time than it should take, but nevertheless, two hours of work on stiffeners.

2 Hours

Total hours on project = 115

Empennage

I spent some more time on the elevators today. I finished cutting and trimming all the stiffeners for the left and right elevators and then did the final drilling to size of all the stiffeners to the skins. With that done I found the E-615PP which is the reinforcement plate for the trim motor attachment and drilled the holes that attach it to the skin. Then I got started with the process to deburr the edges and holes for all those pieces and got about half of that part done before I ran out of time and called it a day.

4 Hours

Total hours on project = 113

Empennage

Spent some time today to get started on building the elevators. I started on the right elevator as it's supposed to be the easiest of the two to build. The left one requires the installation of the trim tab which takes a few extra steps. I laid out the skin for the right elevator and then started cutting and fitting the stiffeners for it. I didn't quite get all the stiffeners done today, but that just leaves something for me to do next time I get in the shop.

2 Hours

Total hours on project = 109

Empennage

I got back from Africa last Thursday night and have spent the last few days with the family. I've also gotten reacquainted with my C150 by flying over 3 hours in these six days since I've been home. Today I got out in the garage to finish the work on the rudder. From the last post you know that I had the trailing edge glued and cleco'd to a piece of heavy aluminum angle before I went back to work last month. It seemed to have set up well and looked very straight. I went all over town this morning trying to find a piece of 3/16" steel about 5' long and 4" wide to use as a backplate to rivet against. I finally got a tip that the only place in town with that was the Farmer's Co-Op. When I got back home with it I used my grinding wheel to smooth all the edges. The instructions indicate that keeping the trailing edge straight is pretty difficult. You have to use a technique called 'double-flush'. These are standard rivets but instead of setting the shop head on a flat surface, it is set in a dimple and ends up flush with the skin surface. The factory flush head ends up almost perfectly flat, but the shop head, though flush with the skin doesn't fill the dimple completely.

I back-riveted the trailing edge rivets as per the instructions. I did about every 8th rivet and only set it about halfway. I worked back and forth until I had all of them set about half way. Then I flipped the rudder over and set the trailing edge rivets with a mushroom set. After I had set all of the rivets I turned the rudder over again and used some finesse to make sure all the rivets were completely set. I was able to keep the edge from bowing and all the rivets turned out pretty well and smooth.

The next step today was to form the leading edge of the rudder. Had to make another trip to the hardware store to get a piece of 3/4" steel pipe to work with. This turned out to be fairly easy and didn't take too long. I followed the instructions in Section 5 of the plans and used the pipe with a bunch of duct tape. Once I got the pipe taped to the rudder I just rotated the pipe to form the curve required. Then I turned it over and did the other side. All the pre-punched holes lined up nicely and I cleco'd them together. I final drilled all the holes and deburred the edges that I could see. All there are put together with blind rivets and and was easy to accomplish.

So that does it for the rudder and it's in the stack with the Horizontal Stabilizer and the Vertical Stabilizer now. Next up is building the elevators.

3 Hours

Total hours on project = 107