Starting the elevators, trimming and drilling elevator stiffeners

Over the past few weeks I worked on and off on trimming the elevator stiffeners between working on other parts. It's more or less the same tedious process as on the rudder stiffeners, but the elevator stiffeners are presented slightly differently.

Instead of having identical long pieces that each have to be cut down to a specific length, the stock elevator trim pieces are notched differently depending on which stiffeners will be made from a certain piece. One long piece was notched to make five small E-720H stiffeners, while others make A, B, C, D, and H stiffeners.

For the right elevator I had to take six stiffeners that I had already cut out and trim them even more to specific lengths called out on the diagram. I had to be careful here - the measurement is from the aftmost hole, which will become the second aftmost hole after the stiffener gets match drilled to the skin, to the end of the stiffener.

Above is an E-720K.

Eventually I was able to get all the stiffeners done, and I clecoed them to the skins for match drilling.