So now that the rudder is done (less the fiberglass work) I have moved on to the elevators. Not much different than the rudder. The construction seems to be not any more difficult, except for the trim tab, but no worries. The elevator tip ribs have several rivet holes in the trailing edge that are very tight. However, turns out the factory has pre-dimpled these holes. Thank you,... thank you very much. In blogs of builders who have come before me, this had been a problem so this stress I don't have to deal with.
One thing the plans didn't tell is how to deal with the trim plate that holds the trim servo or the trim cable. By looking at other blogs, I figured out the rivets that hold the nut plates need to be countersunk. I chose to do this before assembly. The plate is a little thin, but these rivets are non structural since the screws will hold everything together when assembled, so I am not worried about over countersinking. This turned out to be a non-issue.
I am ready to start assembly of the elevators, but wouldn't you know it, its raining in Los Angeles, go figure. So am on hold until I can spray primer. Maybe I should re-introduce myself to the kids ;-)
So got the elevator skins, ribs and all remaining parts primed today. I
found it much easier to deburr and prime the skins and ribs before match
drilling. What I did was to deburr the holes as they came from the factory
using 300 grit paper, then wiped down the inside of the skin with lacquer
thinner, let dry and prime. When I get around to match drilling to
final size, I will use a reamer instead of a drill bit and touch up the
holes afterward with a counter sink. Using the reamer, it seems the
major burrs are from the factory punch, not from match drilling.
In order to prime the skins, I built a jig to hold open the skins.
