Today I finished up the elevator for the most part. I drilled the elevator half of the trim tab hinge then riveted the hinge in place. I am very happy with the results, the hinge tweaks a little after riveting and makes the hinge pin a little difficult to insert but you want a snug fit. The trim tab moves without interference with the elevator skin. The trailing edge (see photo) and root edge are lined up perfectly. The trim tab servo line up is off just slightly as you can see the in the photo. I guess I could have sacrificed some of the root edge alignment to make the servo line up with the control horn better but it is off by so little and there is plenty of play in the control rod connection that the function of the trim tab should not be an issue.
I am waiting on some blind rivets that I might use on the top of the skin if they look better than the MK319BS rivets. I am really getting some because I read about builder using them here and there and I want to see for myself how they set. Just the blind rivets to go as far as riveting. I still need to roll the leading edges, I am going to start with the rudder, I prepped it and it is sitting on the work bench ready to get rolled, I will need to enlist some help for this task or come up with some way to hold the pipe down while I roll, you can’t do both at the same time with just two hands, at least I can’t with one weak hand. After the edges are rolled the tail will be done except for the fiberglass ends which I will wait on until I can take some classes. I am onto the wings next I guess, I have started to fiddle with some of the fuselage seat parts, I might just multi task to keep things interesting. I wanted to have the tail done by the end of December, I guess 3 month overdue is not all bad since when I set the goal I had no idea as to how fast or slow I would build. I have used more hours than average but Then I was in a cast for 8 weeks.
