Brief Description: more working to eliminate elevator twist
I'm beginning to feel reasonably optimistic that I may be able to remove the twist in these elevators without having to scrap them and start over. Today I removed the clecoes and the skins moved and relaxed into a much better shape. I formed up the tip ribs and the inboard ribs to sort of establish a couple of control points. This seemed helpful so I added an intermediate rib on each elevator, not called for in the plans, but I felt it would help to hold everything straight. I made them from 0.020 to save weight, for whatever that may be worth. with the clecoes removed, and the skins allowed to find their own place, they are looking reasonably flat and straight. the trailing edge radius was different between the two elevators, so I put them back onto the assembly table and clamped them down with a continuous 4x4 to try to match the radius on the two trailing edges. The rivet holes on the top skin are now more than an inch offset from the should-be-matching holes in the flange of the forward face of the elevator. I can trim off the old holes, because fortunately the upper skin is also now overlapping past the forward face of the elevator. So I just need to drill new holes matching to the old holes and I should be back in business.
