Brief Description: Installed elevator rod end hinges & counter weight
The elevators were constructed last March at the Alexander Tech Center in Griffin, GA, but I'm just now adding the rod end bearing hinges and the lead counter weights for balancing. It was just a matter of threading the rod end bearings with a jam nut into the nutplates that I riveted to the elevator spar. Using a crescent wrench in the small space was the only difficulty I encountered. I used an open end wrench to tighten the jam nuts. The lead counter weights had to be filed to fit between the elevator end rib flange and the skin. It called for a snug fit and then to drill two #12 holes through the skin, weights, and rib flange for bolting the weights using two flush AN509-10R24 screws, two AN960-10 washers, and two nylon AN 365-1032 lock nuts. The weights had to be countersunk to accept the flush bolts. The skin had to be dimpled by using a #10 dimple on the end of a homemade 2x2x4 dimple holder and a hammer. You could not dimple the skin before installing the countersunk weights because of the tight fit. You had to dimple the skin into the weight countersinks. Not difficult, just time consuming like everything else. The elevators won't have the final balance until the airplane is painted. It's a matter of drilling out lead to get the balance of the elevators into the "in trail" position of the horizontal stabilizer.
