447 hours - finishing the LE roll on the right elevator

So after devoting an entire nice building weekend to the completion of my 2011 taxes, I finally got to go out to the shop tonight and continue working on the dream. I had partially completed the roll of the leading edge of the elevator. Now came the hard part - forming the final curve by hand for the bottom and middle sections.

I must say that I agree with others that have come before me that say that the middle section is the hardest one to finish. It makes sense if you think about it. The bottom section is the largest, and it is also a fairly long stretch of metal. The fact that the skins are larger at the bottom due to the taper of the leading edge (skinnier at the tip and wider at the root), means that it is a bit easier use your hands to work with it and form it the way that you need to. The tip section, by contrast, contains the smallest length of skin, as well as the smallest radius of all the sections. Even though it has a smaller radius than the bottom section, which generally makes it harder to work with, the short length of the tip section also makes it very easy to form into the final position for riveting.

The middle section, on the other hand, has a smaller radius, which makes it hard to get fingers and hands in all the right places to work the metal, AND it is also a very long section of metal. This results in a great deal of resistance on this section of skin. It wants to act more like a spring than a piece of metal that can be easily shaped to final form with your bare hands. It takes some creative work with your hands to get this section to fit correctly.

I managed to get the bottom and middle sections rolled into final position to the point where I am almost satisfied with them. The top middle skin needs a bit more work to remove some separations from the bottom skin - a few tweaks in just the right places to push the skin down a bit further to seal the gap. Unfortunately this is a bit more difficult than it sounds, especially when the top and bottom skins start to overlap with each other as they get closer to their final positions.

I'll post pics tomorrow since I'm too tired to do it now. Sure felt good to work on the plane again, even if my fingers, hands, and arms are tired from all that intricate metal forming!