Empennage

Today I went a long way toward finishing up the empennage. I installed both elevators and checked them to make sure I had full travel both up and down without interference. I used a digital angle finder to measure the travel and was well within the guidelines of the plans.

With that done I aligned the trailing edge on the extended chord of the stabilizer in trail. I secured the elevator in this position with the counterbalance arm aligned evenly with the stabilizer. I used a drill bushing that I had ordered from McMaster-Carr to protect the VA-146 hinge bearing so I could locate and drill a pilot hole in the WD-605-1-R for the bolt that attaches the horn to the center bracket. Then I took the right elevator off and final drilled the hole in WD-605-1-R using a #12 bit and then a 1/4" bit. Then I repeated these steps for the Left elevator

Next step was to install the elevators on the horizontal stabilizer and checked for alignment. I was pleased that they fit properly and there was no binding in the hinge line. The last thing I accomplished was to complete the installation of the arm from the elevator trim motor to the trim tab and checked it with a 9 volt battery.

My next step is to mount the rudder to the vertical stabilzer and then install the fiberglass tips.

6 Hours

Total hours on project = 172