Put together the trim tab servo cover and brackets.
It is still very tight between the servo and the rear most shop heads. I even used -3 rivets in those two holes. I might squeeze them just a bit more, as it seems like the cover is bowing out when I mount the servo.
Overall it looks much better than my original attempt.
Smoothed edges, dimpled, prepped and primed the replacement trim tab servo cover and brackets. Since the cover is .032, I countersunk the rivets for the bracket instead of dimpling. That should give me more clearance beween the shop head and the servo.
I finally got to do a little bit of work tonight. I ran out of work on the empennage, and am still waiting for the wing kit.
I received the replacement trim tab cover from Van’s, so I started drilling and deburring that. I made sure this time that the trim servo arm is in the middle of the cutout.
I also put the few remaining blind rivets in the VS and left elevator.
Bent the leading edge of the left elevator and closed it up with blind rivets. (It’s just sitting temporarily on the HS.)
I made a tool out of PVC to tighten the rod end bearings to the dimensions shown on the plans. I think this tool was first documented on Sam Buchanan’s RV-6 web site.
I then trial fit the elevators to the horizonal stabilizer to figure out where I need to trim.
Alright, might as well prop up the vertical stabilizer to see what it looks like. Cool. This might someday be a plane!! Big progress over the past few months.
Finished riveting the trim tab hinge to the elevator. Looks good. Just waiting on some blind rivets to finish it off. And I have to roll the leading edge.
I also ordered some new parts for the trim tab cover. The electric trim servo is just not sitting right on the cover. I followed the drawing exactly (Steve verified that), but I should have been paying attention to the alignment with the cutout. It’s not centered.
Also, the aft-most rivets under the servo seem to be preventing it from sitting all the way down like it should. I don’t think I located those holes, but maybe there was something I could have done to prevent that. Maybe countersink instead of dimple??
Anyway, I’m ordering a new trim tab cover and the brackets for the servo. A grand total of $9.
Riveted the left elevator closed (except for the trim tab hinge) and clamped the trim tab in position. Drilled the hinge to the elevator. Riveted the trim tab closed, including drilling and blind riveting the ends.
Finished the leading edge on the right elevator. It looks pretty good. The thicker skin on the elevators is much harder to form than the rudder, but not impossible.
I also drilled out most of the rivets on the bottom of the left elevator in order to put RTV inside to bind the trailing ends of the stiffeners (a step I forgot several days back). I’m letting the RTV set up overnight.
My buddy Steve came by to help out today. It’s great to have an extra set of hands, even on the stuff that doesn’t need a second person, like squeezing rivets. It goes much faster when one person is on the squeezer and the other is handling clecos.
We put RTV into the right elevator, let is set 2 hours, and riveted it back together. Started to bend the leading edge, but ran out of time to finish it.
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I realized a few days ago that I made a mistake on the elevators. To my credit, the instructions aren’t very good and I’ve been working 1 or 2 hours at a time, so it’s easy to forget every little step. I forgot to put RTV in the elevator to link together the stiffners at the trailing edge. I did a bunch of research on the topic. Apparently, this could lead to cracking. Van’s has switched to a thicker skin on the elevators since the problem appeared, so it might be OK. Since I’m just waiting for the wing kit to show up, I might as well fix it.
I spent almost an hour carefully drilling out the rivets on one side of the right elevator.
I’m waiting on a sealant gun to work on the rudder, so I went back to working on the elevators. Time to put the trim tab together. That is a tough little part to work on. I used the longeron yoke on the squeezer to set the rivets on the lower flange of the spar, including the ones that hold on the horn. I had to carefully maneuver the yoke so as not to scratch the inside of the skin. Setting the forward-most rivet on the horn kind of bent it a bit. I’ll have to figure out how to straighten it out a bit.