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

Empennage

I had a lot of help on the project today. Both Donna and Jim spent time in the garage with me as we wrestled with rolling and riveting the leading edges of both the elevators. Once we got those finished I installed the rod bearings per the plans and did a preliminary check and mounted the left elevator to the horizontal stabilizer. There's still a lot of trimming to get the elevator aligned to swing through it's full up and down travel without interference.

4 Hours

Total hours on project = 166

Empennage

I had a good productive day on the project today. I continued to work on the Trim Tab and started today by clamping the E-721 hinge to the top flange of E-607PP. I marked the inboard edge of the hinge where it aligned with the trim tab skin and spar. Then I drilled the holes in the skin, spar and hinge where they were all aligned. At that point I disassembled the trim tab and did some countersinking on the top of the spar and dimpled the bottom flange of the E-607PP spar. I had a small amount of material to remove from the hinge and then prepared all the parts by edge finishing, deburring, and dimpling.

Next, I clecoed the trim tab back together and riveted the bottom of the skin to the bottom flange of the spar and attached the E-717 and E-718. Then I clmaped the hinge to the upper flange of the E-606PP and the aft edge of the E-701-L elevator skin. Donna was helping with the next step where I had to adjust the hinge on the elevator so that the inboard and trailing edges of the trim tab were aligned with the corresponding edges on the elevator. The trailing edge is more critical and we used a long straight edge to aid in the aligning of the trailing edge. With everything aligned I drilled and clecoed the forward portion of the hinge using the holes in the skin and spar as a guide. Then I marked the inboard edge of the skin on the hinge. Then I removed the E-721 hinge and trimmed the inboard end to match the inboard edge of the E-701-L skin.

After that I clecoed the the tab hinge and trim tab onto the elevator. At this point the plans call for you to sight down the trailing edge and make adjustments. Fortunately I thought it looked extremely straight and didn't need any adjustments. With Donna holding it straight I drilled the folded ends of the inboard tabs and put in a couple of clecos. I removed the trim tab from the elevator and while carefully maintaining the alignment we set the rivets on the top of the trim tab. With that done I set the blind rivets in the ends of the trim tab and checked the alignment again to make sure that these didn't interfere with the rivets in the inboard tabs of the elevator. After that we finished the Trim Tab by riveting the forward half of the E-721 hinge to the elevator.

The plans say to install and bend the trim tab hinge pin and secure it to the E-606PP spar. Then they tell you that the pin they have supplied is too short to do this now. I'll be recieveing longer pins with the fuselage kit. Also, the space between the trim tab and elevator tabs is a minimum of 3/32". Measured, the distance on mine is right at 4/32".

6 Hours

Total hours on project = 162

Empennage

The weather was terrible today. Started out with freezing rain that progressed to sleet. It was about 25 degrees when I got up and fell to 19 as the day went along. I got in the garage and got busy with the RV and was glad to have my son Jim at home helping me out today. We finished up the riveting of the E-701-L and E-713 to the understructure. With that done we moved on and riveted the E-606PP to E-701-L on the bottom flange only. You have to leave to top flange unriveted at this point for the installation of the trim tab hinge. Then I finished attaching the E-714 counterweight.

We moved along to the Trim Tab at this point. First thing was to finish the bend of the trailing edge of the E-619-1-020 trim tab skin. I used the bending tool that I had fabricated earlier to accomplish this. It was the easy part. Next step was to fabricate a set of bending blocks from wood like I did on the elevator tabs so I could bend the tabs on each end of the trim tab. I had to do both the inboard and outboard sides. I'm glad Jim was here to help as it is a lot harder than it sounds.

The next step was to cleco the E-607PP to the inside bottom surface of E-619-1-020. Then I took E-717 and E-718 and clamped them together and ran a clevis pin through the clevis pin attach hole for alignment. Then I cleco'ed E-717 to the trim tab skin. There were only three holes pre-drilled so I used the holes in E-718 as a guide and match drilled E-718 and E-717 to E-619-1-020 and E-607PP.

E-717 and E-718 has a lot of extra aluminum that has to be removed so I took them off the trim tab skin and made them to the correct size by trimming with the shears and finishing up with the Scotch Brite wheel.

5 Hours

Total hours on project = 156

Empennage

Today I moved on to bending of the Left Elevator Tabs. This is a step that sounds a lot easier than it really is. I had to measure the dimensions and cut a block of wood to fit inside the elevator to approximate the bend angle of the elevator skin. I measured and marked the bend line perpendicular to the edge of the trim tab cutout. The plans call for you to offset the bend line by 1/32 inch inboard from the desired bend location. I wasnt really sure of why they wanted you to do that, but I did it in faith that the plans are correct. I had to go to town and get some double sticky sided tape to put inside the skin to help keep the wedge block from slipping. then I clamped the skin and blocks to the edge of the work table and started bending the tabs. The bottom tab was bent first as it resides inside of the upper tab. This is designed to shed water and prevent it from getting inside the elevator. When that was done I bent the other tab. The bends ended up exactly along the bend line so I guess I must have dobe it correctly.

The next step was to start riveting the Left Elevator. It was the same steps that I used to rivet the Right Elevator. E-703 to E-704; E-610PP & E-611PP and platenuts to E-702; E-705 to E-702; E-703;E-704 to E-702; WD-605-1-L to E-702 and E-705; The four rivets on E-713 to E-701; Placed E-714 inside E-713 with screws partially inserted; Inserted the elevator skeleton into the E-701-L/E-713; Then I cleco'd and riveted the E-701-L and E-713 to the understructure on the bottom side.

5 Hours

Total hours on project = 151

Empennage

I spent the afternoon continuing to work on the Left Elevator. I had finished up with the deburring of the parts yesterday, so the first thing I did today was to dimple the parts that had been deburred. The next step was to put together the Electric Trim motor and mounting hardware. The plans are pretty clear but it's still somewhat confusing since the kit was originally designed with a manual trim. I was able to go on the Internet and look through some web sites that other builders have used as their builders log and looked at how they did this step. I spent quite a bit of time on this process but am satisfied with the results. When I got it all put together I used a 9 Volt battery to test it and was thrilled to see it working as it is supposed to. I ran it all the way out and then all the way back in so I feel it has full travel for trim adjustments.

4 Hours

Total hours on project = 146

Empennage

Today I deburred and dimpled all the parts on the Left Elevator. It still amazes me how it can take so long for not so much to show for it.

3 Hours

Total hours on project = 142

Empennage

Today I started on the Left Elevator. I had already done a few of the step as I was working on the Right Elevator and was a couple of steps ahead. I had the reinforcement plates and corresponding platenuts cleco'd to the E-702 Spar. Also, the E-703 end rib and the E-704 counterbalance rib had been cleco'd and drilled. So I started out on the E-714 counterweight and cleco'd the E-713 counterbalance skin to these parts. I drilled the two holes in the E-713 to a #12 through the E-714 and the E-703 and E-704. Then I got to take the E-714 counterweight out and re-cleco'd the sub-assembly to the E-702 Spar.

Next came the E-705 root rib to the E-702; I final drilled these to #40. Next I cleco'd the E-701-L skin to the understructure. With that in place I took the clecos out of the E-705 and E-702 so I could cleco and drill the WD-605-1-L Elevator Horn to the E-705 and E-702.

Then I cleco'd and final drilled the E-606PP to E-705 at the root end of the E-606PP Spar. Next came the drilling of the E-701-L skin to the understructure. Once that was done I took everything apart.

3 Hours

Total hours on project = 139

Empennage

I spent the afternoon riveting the right elevator. There were ten steps in the plans to accomplish the task. E-703 to E-704; E-610PP, E-611PP,and the platenuts to E-702. E-709 to E-702; E-703/E-704 to E-702. WD-605-1-R to E-702 and E-709; E-713 to E-701. This step was a little confusing at first until I realized that by riveting this first you can reach inside to squeeze the rivets. Any other way and you'd have to use blind rivets to attach these four rivets. Then I put the E-714 in place loosely and then inserted the elevator skeleton into the E-701/E-713. With all that done I finally was able to cleco and rivet the skin to the understructure and finish attaching the E-714 counterweight. I was somewhat concerned when I finished up that the elevator seemed to be overbalanced and the counterweight was way too heavy. I read through the plans and was relieved to find that this is intentional. They want it overbalanced to account for completing the elevator and painting.

5 Hours

Total hours on project = 136