Sunday 19 August 2018

Elevator Wrap Up

This blog covers the final assembly of the tail stab.

Overview
Floating nuts added to make assembly easier with stab installed
Stab is now ready to install

All good things in life have an end, so all the individual jobs on the tail have their conclusion and after the drama of the spar nick and attachment holes it was time to assemble the parts

Elevator
Having upgraded the tail attachment to the new design it was decided to also replace the flat bar supplied with my early kit with the new angle models. Using a factory set of drawings two new attachments were fabricated and alodined ready for the final install.


Rear attachment brackets installed for final assembly
It would have been best to have the elevators removed
but all assembled and I did not want to to do it again - heavy !

Cover fixed ready for the fin to be installed
This cannot be opened with the fin on
Screws are M4 x 12 Dome head titanium
from the local RC store

Leveling fuselage

Checking angle of attack is at zero 
Rivet line of longeron is the reference as shown above

Verifying stab is level with fuselage reference
Note: to check stab angle eas place on two pieces of scrap angle 
to allow the angle to accommodate the wing taper

Reassurance - thanks
Comments
Just wish I could have side stepped the dramas but maybe that is why its called experimental.  I worked with a number of machinist / fitters over the years and one comment is in my head at this time, one of the fitters struggling to assemble a job commented - "Mate this is why it's called fitting not assembly" 

May have been right, just may have been right.