Really not much to say here, I re-attached the elevator skins to the spar and riveted. This completes the elevator, again. Hopefully this is ok now though I wonder if this time around is any better than my original attempt. With the tail done, I decided to get the first wing spar out of...
First step to finishing the nose rib assembly is to open the holes for an A4 rivet. And then there is the deburring, always with the deburring. I still find a twist of a drill bit the most effective method. Next comes primer and riveting. Four of these will be used “right away” once...
A couple of work trips to London and San Francisco plus temps in the 110s meant new motivation to work on the plane for a while. But I am anxious to get the wings out of the box so I got back into the garage to drill out the second nose skin. I did...
Today I drilled holes in the first nose skin to match the existing ones in the spar and ribs. I deburred the holes and then drew a line 10mm from the edge of the holes and used the snips to trim the extra metal away. This left a very jagged uneven looking cut which...
Nothing to say here really other than I am getting quite good at taking out rivets. Knock out the core with a punch, drill out the head, rinse and repeat. Nose skins are removed, new ones are here, will see about putting them on over the next few weeks.
During the week, a new box arrived from Zenith: This box contained my replacement nose skins for the horizontal tail: And some 3-way LED lights for the wing tips. These lights can do the strobes, the nav lights, and position lights all in one unit. And I was surprised how small they were. The...
All that was left to do for the elevator was install the trim tab and finish riveting the control horn brackets. Not forgetting to connect the servo rod to the trim tab When attached it looks like I have the servo rod too short inside the skin, I shall detach the trim tab and...
The big push to get the elevator finished. I started by adding corrosion protectant to the spar where the skins will touch and then reassembled the rear skins onto the spar, clecoed in place and then riveted both sides. I made this video: and here are some closer pictures of the skin where the...
The heat isn’t getting any better so I thought I would just put the skins onto the spar but it turned out I needed to do a little bit more first. I started off by putting some corrosion protector on the places where the skins would be making contact. While I was waiting for...
It’s hot (have I mentioned that yet) and so its a case of just doing a little when I feel like it and so today was some time to get things ready for rivet time. It started with finishing the deburring and then adding corrosion protector to a few surfaces. I’ve decided to take...