1.0 Hours -
This evening, I quickly finished riveting all the right elevator rivets that could be squeezed. Once this was done, only 8 rivets remained. The remaining rivets were the four aft-most rivets attaching the skin to the end rib and the four aft-most rivets attaching the skin to the root rib.
I decided to try indirect back riveting on these. The four rivets attaching the skin to the root rib went in without issue. The factory heads were flush with the skin and the shop heads were perfect. However, the four rivets attaching the end rib to the skin did not want to cooperate with this same method. For some reason, I could not get these to be flush to the skin. Rather than risk messing up the skin, I decided to drill these holes out to 7/64ths and use MK-319-BS blind rivets instead of solid rivets. Once again, it’s going to be a “go plane” not a “show plane.”
With the skin on, I finished attaching the counterweight, leaving only the leading edge bend. Van’s has you leave this until the left elevator is done and bend them both at the same time. I agree with this and will set the right elevator aside and start back up on the left. Dreaded trim tab, here I come!
The right elevator is done except for rolling the leading edge and fitting the tip.
