We flew in a bunch of help for the Thanksgiving weekend; first Natalie had to train the new recruits.
After Uncle Benny passed her inspection (clecoing, drilling deburring, riveting on practice material), he set to work riveting the right elevator counterbalance skeleton together. He really leaned into it.
The flange-nosed yoke I bought was essential here, as I only had 1 flat die that was long enough.
Next he & Dad riveted on the spar reinforcement plates and nutplates for the control bushings.
Our lead helper came back to check on us & attach the right elevator horn.
Skeleton complete!
Per the suggestion of the Van's instructions we installed these two rivets to avoid having to install blind rivets later.
That done, the skeleton slid in easily, the counterweight fit nicely and we proceeded to rivet the skin to the skeleton.
After finishing the bottom skin I remembered that we hadn't applied the black RTV at the intersection of the stiffeners inside the skin; access was tight, so we made a bit of a mess, but we got it in just the same.
While the guys set some of the skin rivets and prepared to roll the leading edge I worked on bending the left elevator trim tab tabs.
These were easier to bend than the tabs on the elevator itself, mostly because I used more double-sided tape and was able to clamp them more securely.
We headed in to carve the turkey with a nearly complete elevator! We got the leading edge rolled, match-drilled and ready for deburring. Man, these things go together fast with lots of help.
Dad picked up right where he'd left off after helping start the horizontal stabilizer last fall, and Ben picked it up quick. It's just a shame we're a thousand miles apart!
Empennage: 5 hrs
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