shag555

Ok guys... I got the Elevator halves completed today! I started by tracing the trailing edge of the stabalizer to some 1/4 inch balsa and cut it out in one piece. Got all the ribs cut out and laid them up and glued in. This time I made sure that they were straight in all three dimensions (learned my lesson with the stab)! I also used the stab as a jig, and clamped the 1/4 inch leading edge to the trailing edge of the stab. The most time consuming part of building these elevators was all the sanding of leading and trailing edges to get it right! Also, these elevators have a counter balance. The plans called for the stab to be flat where it meets the counter balance, but I added a concave shape to it to clean it up a little. It'll make for a little more difficult covering job, but will look better in the long run.

After sanding out the leading edge, there isn't a heck of alot of throw to these elevators! I'm going with robart hinge pins and haven't blocked the stab and elevator yet, nor have I drilled it to get the final verdict on the amount of throw. That'll come this week. I'm going to purchase one of those jigs for drilling square and on center for compound angles first. I thought about this, and it would have made more sense to install the hinge blocks on the leading and trailing edges of both pieces prior to even gluing anything to them, then drill them and build around them.

Back to the throw... The trailing edge of the stab is flat, so I figure that if there isn't enough throw on the elevators, I can always add some trailing edge stock to it. If that's the case, I'll have to modify the counter balances to get them to mate properly with the stab.