More trimming

Started trimming (cutting and filing) on the right elevator skin. Cut out both tip skins from the sheet of metal.

Elevator skinning

Did some more measurements and fitting of the skin.

Skin off HS

Took off the skin from the HS - again.

Riveting HS skin

Finished riveting the center spar to the skin.

HS and skins

After the jig was straightened, I tried to put the old skins on, to see if how far off they were. For some odd reason they fitted. Some rivets are a bit tight on the aft spar near the tip, but not by much. I guess the flexibility and the diameter of the holes compared to the rivets allows for large variations for pieces of the size of the HS, hence the importance of jigs (straight jigs that is).

Contacted Vans about this, and according to Ken Scott: "I would try riveting the stab back together, with it held in the jig. Variations this small can be taken out just by re-riveting". So the fix is hopefully much easier than first anticipated.

Riveting the VS skin

Starded riveting the VS skin to the skeleton. Alternating sides to be sure it is as straight as possible.

VS ready for riveting

Riveted on the brackets and inserted the tube. I'm not entirely sure if it wouldn't be better to just glue the wire to the skin, but if I in the future decide to install some fancy anti radar equipment in the tail, this will be much easier now :-)

Put on the skin again, so it is ready for rivetimg.

Riveted on the rudder skin

The rudder skin is riveted on the rudder skeleton. I used Cherrymax rivets on the control horn. I need to get a pipe wrench tomorrow to bend the leading edge into shape. I thought I could do it by hand, but it is way too strong and I just can't get a good grip on the pipe.

Drilling the rudder

Marked all lines and holes and drilled the rudder skin to the skeleton. Also made the strips to fasten the fiberglass trimming and details.

Fixing rudder

Finished trimming the rudder skin. Cut out the slots for the hinges. Used cutters for a rough cut, then a dremel for the rounded corner and a file to get straight edges.

Fixing up the VS skin

Finished trimming, deburred the skin and skeleton and primed the VS skin.

Trimming etc

Trimmed the trailing edge of the vs skin and removed strips of blue plastic around the holes. Deburring next.

Finished drilling the VS skin

Finished drilling the skin. When I took the skin off again, everything looked OK, no holes in the wrong place. Need to drill the two fore-most holes at the tip, but I have to take the skeleton off the jig first.

Drilling the VS skin

Finished marking on the jig and the ruler. Transfered the markings to the skin and started drilling.

Adjusting the skin on the VS

Riveted together the VS skeleton. Postioned the skeleton in the jig and and started to adjust the skin

Started riveting the skins

After a few tries with wrong bars, the first line of rivets on the HS is formed. According to Tom at Van's it is best to try to rivet as much as possible in the jig to be sure that the HS is straight.

Primed the HS skins

Primed the HS skins and touched up some on the VS spar.

HS-406 fix

Made two HS-406 tips that will be riveted on to the original HS-406. The HS-406 is too small, about 1/2 inch (see earlier posts), so the flanges on the tip will be cut back, and the new tips will be rivited in place about 1/2 inch more fwd. It has (according to Van's) no structural consequence to leave the forward part of the rib unriveted, but it will not look good. Do to the fixtures in the jig, I have to take the skeleton out to have room for the tools to fasten the rib fixes.

Trimmed the skins according to plans.

One HS skin ready

Finished drilling one of the skins. Started fitting the other.

Stiffeners on rudder, new HS skins

Today the new skins for the HS came, only 6 days after telling Van's about the errors. The new ones are better, and will fit, but they are not perfect. It is impossible to make the HS according to the drawings with them, there will be at least 2-4/16 of an inch wrong. In my opinion Van's should do one of two things:

1. Make them right.
2. Make them oversize so the trailing edge has to be trimmed.

Back riveted the rudder stiffeners to the rudder skin. (It is strange how my camera insist on making the Strontium Chromate green, when it is yellow)