Brief Description: Resolved issue of difficult installation/removal o
I have been unable to install the horizontal stabilizer with the elevator installed. I remove the elevator and still had issues installing removing but was able to install. I then realized that it was much colder then when I first tried installing it. I looked up the coefficient of expansion of both aluminum and carbon fibre and found that carbon fiber was around 0 (-1 in high quality carbon fibre) and 6061 aluminum was around 13 (inch/inch deg C). So I tried heating the aluminum with a heat gun to ~90-100 degrees (warm to the touch) and the two pins on the aluminum fixation plate easily slid in to the pin bushings that were embedded in the carbon fiber vertical stabilizer. This must be a common issue with all Pipistrels because of the tight fitting pins and the mis-match in CTE (coefficient of expansion) between the fixation plate and the mounting holes. I asked Pipistrel if they had a solution to this but I am probably going to have to remount the pins at a different temp if I want to resolve this issue in my climate. This is a design problem that would best be resolved by using a different mounting approach. How about 1 pin and 2 bolts (one on either side of the elevator pushrod to mount the horizontal stablizer.
