451 hours - Rolling the left elevator

A big thank you to my fellow aviator and neighbor Kevin Shepard and his father Bill. Kevin answered my call for assistance to get the left elevator leading edges rolled. His father was visiting and wanted to take a look at my build, so of course I put both of them to work as soon as they arrived. It sure is helpful to have many sets of extra hands during this process.

Only differences between this episode and the one for the right elevator is that I used only 2 sections of overlapped gorilla tape instead of 4 to attach the water pipe to the skin, and I used the 3/4 inch OD pipe for both top and bottom skins instead of the small one for the bottom and the larger one for the top. I did not mean to use the same size pipe on both sides - just slipped my mind. Anyway, I think it worked out fine this time. 2 pieces of tape worked great adn the bends came out just fine. Oh yeah, I also did not roll the edges very far at all. Maybe 35 degrees tops. This worked out very well as the edges of the skins were much closer to where they needed to be by the time I finsihed hand forming the rest of the bends oin each section.

The left elevator is also a bit different than the right in that it is essentially split into 4 sections instead of three. This is due to the slot that is cut in the inboard section to allow for the manual trim tab cable, should one desire to install that trim system. Since I am installing electric trim I will ahve no use for this slot, but that is the way the skins come from the factory. This actually makes bending the leading edges a little easier since it reduces the overall size of one of the sections. That middle section is still a bear to get positioned correctly.

I almost have everything positioned where I want it. I will tweak it a bit more tomorrow before I final drill the holes and set the rivets on both elevators.

This pic shows clecoes installed on all rolled sections"

And I reprimed the bottom skin of the right elevator. Should be able to close that up tomorrow as well. The primer on the left elevator actually did not come off when I removed the tape from the bar and the skin. Must have had enought time to cure hard to the metal or something. So at least I only had to reprime the right elevator.

I am still a bit concerned about the burs from drilling the holes in the right elevator, but I think I knocked them down as best I could.. I think I will use the reamers on the left elevator instead of using the drill bits to see if I can keep those holes a little cleaner.