October 20, 2001

Today I finished up the right elevator by closing the leading edge. Here you can see the duct taped broomstick approach. You basically curl this sucker inward, using vise grips (or whatever you've got) for gripping and wrenching the curl inward. The new thicker skins on these control surfaces are a bitch to curl, but it only takes a bit of persistence. After the skins are curled, you cleco them together, drill the holes out (yeah, the 7 comes with pilot holes...), and then pop rivet the leading edge closed.

I installed the two remaining counterbalance weights on the right elevator.

When I mounted the right elevator on the horizontal stab, there wasn't enough clearance for the counterbalance arm, so I had to shave off a bit of the overlapping HS skin. No problem, swings through unobstructed now.

While I was at it, I trimmed a couple inches off the rear HS spar lower flange so that the control horns can exercise their full range of travel. The elevators' range of motion exceeds the specs by a couple degrees, so all is well. Here's a picture of the complete horizontal stabilizer with both elevators mounted. Too cool.

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Dan Checkoway ()