Tag Archives: elevator

Horizontal Stabilizer and Right Elevator

I hear it is important to have photos in the builder’s log of myself building the airplane, so Caroline volunteered to come down and take some pictures.  I drew an outline of the horizontal stabilizer on my workbench and here I am precisely positioning the forward spar.

While we are at it, here is the vertical stabilizer.

I am still trying to decide what to do about corrosion protection, so I have been too chicken to start riveting.  I decided to start working on the elevators–I have been worried about how to cut the control surfaces with the tight bends.  I ended up cutting within an inch or so of the line with the bandsaw since it is difficult to see how close to the line I am on the bottom side.  Then I used offset Wiss snips to cut close to the line.  The Andy snips seemed to big for this job except on some of the long cuts.  I used my Dremel tool with an abrasive disk to cut through the bends.  Then I used the  scotch brite wheel to shape right to the line.

I started drilling pilot holes in my first piano hinge.