I completed most of the preparation of the trim tab parts today. I had already bent the tabs over but still needed to match drill the holes for the spar and trim control horn. The part that took the most time was measuring and setting up the aft portion of the hinge to the trim tab itself, the holes for the hinge to the elevator comes later. The countersinking of the trim tab spar went well, I used scrap aluminum under the spar drilled and clecoed to some MDF like I did with the elevator trim spar.
After drilling the trim tab parts, I deburred and dimpled the holes but re-clecoed it back up and did a test fit to the elevator. I did not cleco the entire elevator together, just the forward spar and the trim tab spar but from what I could tell the fit will be nice, no need to trim off more of the elevator skin to make room for the trim tab. It even looks like the trim tab will line up with no twist to the elevator. I will make a final check on twist once the elevator skeleton if riveted to the skin.
The final event for the day was to prime all the trim tab parts and my “riblet”. I know it took more time to build the “riblet” than it would have to make the bends but I did enjoy a bit of real fabrication, OK semi-fabrication.
