I noticed that several RV's at Oshkosh had elevators with two pop rivets in the E-713. The manual indicates that if you sqeeze these two rivets first before sliding in the entire skeleton, you can use regular rivets. This worked out very well on the right elevator and I remembered to do this again on the left elevator. I almost forgot about the silicone though at the trailing joint of each stiffener pair and along the small crack in the tabs by the trim tab cutout. I had one side of the skin clecoed to the understructure when I remembered that I needed to do this. I took everything apart, applied the silicone and then clecoed everything back together. The left elevator is finally ready to rivet together. It has been a long day with a couple of mistakes along the way. Nothing too serious and I was able to correct everything but the small crack. Hopefully, the silicone and extra rivet will serve to prevent the crack from growing in this non-structural area....
Two rivets on the E-713 sqeezed first to avoid pop rivets
Gum wad size of blue silicone on trailing edge of each stiffener
Left elevator clecoed together and ready to be riveted
