(9-13 step 3):
This morning I worked on attaching the skins to the front spar on
the left elevator. The plans (as I read it) seem to imply concern
about inducing a twist in the elevator when doing this step. So I
looked for ways to weight it down in order to keep it flat on the table
while riveting. The break we built to bend the trim tabs seemed
to fit nicely across the majority of the elevator (wide enough to cover
the area we'd be riveting. The plans call for leaving the outer 7
or 8 rivets undone at this time in order to allow access inside
later.) So, with the elevator held flat on the table, I clecoed
every other hole and inserted rivets in the rest. I then used the
same ordering technique employed on trailing edges, which is to set the
middle rivet, the outter rivets, and the random ones after that.
Once those were done, the clecoes came out, a new batch of rivets went
in, and the same process was followed.
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Once
the topside was done, I flipped it over and used the same process on
the bottom. So, we're getting close to having the front spar
completely attached. A couple of internals to take care of, and
then we'll close them up for good!
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On
another note... the right elevator had been bugging us... ok, mainly
me, but both of us to a certain extent. We had the cracked skin
incident with the dimpler. And then not too long ago there were a
bunch of rivets that were drilled out of the ribs attached to the skins
(I've since noticed some very, very small cracks radiating out from a
good number of the rivet holes in the affected ribs). We got the
ok from Van's to go with it as is, although they implied keeping an eye
on it in the future. We got almost the same advice from our tech
advisor. Well, Angela & I talked about it a few times and
decided to survey what it would take to eliminate the future hassle of
potential problems. Turns out all we'd need to do is replace the
upper skin and seven ribs. Faced with this we decided to bite the
bullet and redo those parts. So I put the order in today, and we
should have them in a week or so. Once we get them we'll have to
match drill them to the existing structure, but considering the parts I
don't think that'll be an issue. We'll also have to alodine and
prime them again, but hey... when it's done there won't be this nagging
feeling in the back of my head. Even though I spent more money
today, I feel better...
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