Left Elevator and Trim Tab

April 8, 2010 – Well, OK. A procedure that I had my doubts about turned out as I expected. The left elevator has a cutout for the trim tab, and you have to bend tabs to close the cutout. To do this, you make wood blocks to fit inside and out in order to bend those tabs. My problem, and maybe I just missed it, was that I couldn’t find the dimensions for those blocks anywhere. Lots of pictures, but nothing about specific dimensions. So I traced the outboard rib at the end of the elevator, and cut the block to match that. Turns out that was too narrow. But I tried to bend the tabs.

The inside wedge in place, with double-stick tape.

My result. I didn’t go too far; I knew it wasn’t turning out well.

So I’m going the route that I was thinking I’d prefer anyway. I cut the tabs off, and I’m going to insert a riblet to close that area out. I have a rib made, but I’m going to wait until the tab is made so I can get a precise location and gap between the tab and the elevator.

So then I proceeded to assemble the left elevator.

On to the trim tab. Bobby had already bent the tab and bent the ends. (They are done just like the closeout in the elevator).

I located the brackets for the trim actuator and drilled them.

Then I moved to the hinge for the tab. Clamped it in place, and drilled through the elevator skin and the spar. Did this slowly because the hinge could move while I was drilling it. Took the hinge off, attached it to the tab spar, and drilled that side.

I’m still not sure about the bends on the ends. I’ll probably put it all together and see how I like the fit. I may do the same thing as the elevator: cut the tabs off and make ribs. Stay tuned…

Time : 5:35