Closing up the Elevators - 6 Hours

I started out the evening with the intent to just do a few things on the elevator and wound up putting in a ton of time! I used a little RTV to attach the counterweights to the elevators with the intent to let it dry. I then began to stew a bit on how the torquing of the bolts will go once the RTV is dry.

 It seemed much more reasonable to me to torque them while the RTV is wet, giving the chance for the RTV to squeeze out and get a more reliable torque out of it. So I kept going.

I then worked on my oops dimple a removed the crack with a file, as per Van's recommendations in their email. I dimpled the proper hole and once the rivet is installed, there will be virtually no trace of any oops.

I then got to work on building a block to squeeze the trailing edges of the elevators. I built it exactly how van's describes and it worked extremely well. 

I then installed a 1/8" dowel at the back of the trailing edge and used dabs of RTV where the stiffeners meet to reduce vibration. I kept the dowel in place as I began to cleco the elevators shut.   

After I torqued the counterweight screws, I Squeezed the trailing edges (carefully!!). I was able to get the fall off nearly perfect!   

I then began to rivet the elevators closed.Every half hour or so I would turn the dowels stuck in the elevators to make sure the RTV was not setting up on them. By the end of the night, I pulled the downs out of the elevators and had a look. Perfect! the stiffeners are supported by RTV but there still is a weeping hole for drainage clear thru the elevator.

Trying to finish the HS...Trying - 1 hour

I took a small step back. I've been reading on the Forums about attaching the rudder counterweight. Some have suggested using adhesive on the counterweight when installing. I too think that this makes sense. I've always been taught to glue and screw with wood work, so this made sense to me. I unbolted the weight, and put on a thin coat of my 3145 RTV and then re-bolted/re-torqued the assembly.

I then set to work on riveting the last few items on the HS. All went well with the exception of one rivet in the front spar that I managed to keep folding over. I had to drill it out a couple of times, which then prompted me to use an AD470AD5-8 rivet since the hole got just a tad too big. Unfortunately, i don't have the proper offset rivet set for this size. Now I need to put another order in. Oh well...s*%t happens! Grrr

Later my friend Mike came by in the evening and we spent a few hours on completing the back riveting of his F1 Rocket Elevators (RV8 elevators) and we bent them and the rudder using the wood brake. Worked like a charm! 

Completed the Trim Tab - 2 hours

Set out to figure how to set the two pop rivets on the left side of the trim tab. I've play around with this a bit...Really wish vans had pre-punched holes here like the other side. Oh well. Need to be careful of the minimum edge distances from the bottom tab, and also need to be able to get the dimple dies in there.

A CS4-4 rivet diameter is about 0.125". According to AC-43.13 rivet edge/spacing distances is measured from the center of the rivet to the edge (or center of the next rivet). For single row rivets, edge distance shall not exceed 2x the rivet diameter, and spacing shall not be less than 3x the diameter. This being the rule of thumb. Then the center of the rivet hole needs to be minimum 0.25" from the edge and spacing shall not be less than 0.375". To be safe I kept my distance 0.310" from the edge and a spacing of 0.54"

After I drilled the holes, everything went really well. I dimpled the new holes and there was just enough room to dimple them with the CS4 dies. I then cleco'd the trim tab assembly together and set the CS4 pop rivets followed by all the AN426AD3-4 rivets for the trim tab hinge. Looks great!

The trim tab is done!  

Closed the VS and HS - 4.5 Hours

I was really gunnin' to get things closed up. It feels great to pass the inspection, but I know it will feel much better to finally close up these pieces and complete them.

I started in on placing the rear spar in the Vertical Stabilizer and riveting it into place. It's a bit tricky to set some of those rivets as I have shop heads exposed on the backside of the spar stiffener (I was using the recommended method of keeping the shop head on the thinnest material as per the Van's Airforce forums - Seems that it's not always the most ideal to do this, but extremely difficult to determine when it's wise and when it's not. I then set the three pop rivets. All done!

I then went to work on getting the rear spar in the horizontal stabilizer. Everything went really well. Slow and steady wins the race, and I'm extremely pleased with how nice the rivets are set. I just need to drill out one AN470AD4-4 rivet that attaches the end rib, as well as I need to set the rivets to the front spar...Just a couple of odd rivets to set but I'll hold off until i'm feeling super confident on those.

Just about done the horizontal stabilizer.