Wow, the whole process turned out really good on the elevator seams. I felt it was going to be fine, but I’m even more satisfied now that there’s primer on it and it looks great. After the first coat of primer I lightly sanded with 220 sandpaper then put another coat of primer on. I’ll [...]
More sanding work on the fairing seams. On the right is a pic of the elevator after sanding the first coat of filler. West Systems 410 fills nice and sand like a charm. Glad I’m using it. The pic to the left shows the horizontal fairing gap finished off and sanded. The gap between the [...]
Trimmed the horizontal stabilizer fairing to match the elevator fairing angles. Left enough gap to fill and sand. After that I put in a foam rib as called for in the plans. Used some 5-minute epoxy to glue it in there. However, I will not be removing it as the plans call for. I will [...]
Tore down the whole tail today. Decided not to put on the elevators again or the rudder. Would just be taking it apart afterwards anyways. So I decided to start on the fairings. Worked on the elevator tips. After getting them on, they don’t look too bad at the seam. There are some manufacturing defects [...]
Completed the elevator pushrod. Had to work a little to get the threaded caps in the ends. A little 3M wheel torture convinced them to go in. Also completed the elevator trim assembly. Ran it through it’s paces by hooking up a 9 volt. This was one of the most enjoyable parts of the kit [...]
Wrapped up the elevators today. Last night I double-flush riveted the trailing edges of the elevators. They turned out much better than the rudder. I now have it down to a repeatable process and it looks good. Makes me want to do the rudder over. Maybe if I have some down time between kits I’ll [...]
The skins are now on the elevators. Much the same process as the rudder. I imagine the wing control surfaces will be much the same also. Not much trouble in this step. Everything went pretty smooth. ProSeal is on the trailing edge of the elevators and weighted down like before with the rudder. Foam ribs [...]
Worked on the next step of the elevators which was to back rivet the access reinforment plates and rib halves onto the elevator skins. Nutplates were also riveted to the reinforcement plates and spars. Tried out a new process with the elevators. I am priming a section of parts as I need them instead of [...]
Switched over to work on the trim tabs for a bit. Both the elevators and the trim tabs require the use of ProSeal to bond in a set of foam ribs in the trailing edge. The elevators also require it for the trailing edge where the AEX wedge is. The ProSeal has a short working [...]
Spent most of this session dimpling and deburring all the elevator skins, ribs, etc. This takes a while. I need to get that dimple table top built before I order the wing kit. Should make things a lot easier with one person at the controls. My order came in from Aircraft Spruce and I was [...]
