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| These are the only two rivets that aren't also connected to a spar/rib or the fiberglass tip, so they're the only ones that can really be riveted at this point. |
With that done I gave the interior a few bursts of compressed air to get out any dust and inserted the counterweight loosely into the counterbalance skin with its bolts. A quick rotation of the skeleton into the now single-piece skin and I clecoed everything in place.
I followed the same riveting pattern as the vertical and horizontal stabilizers by starting with the main spar on each side before moving on to the ribs. Everything went smoothly with the exception of the very first rivet on the counterbalance skin, which deformed pretty badly when the squeezer slipped.
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| Whoops. |
One replaced rivet later and I continued aftward down the ribs. The middle section near the spar was far easier to set than the corresponding section on the rudder since every rivet there could be reached with the squeezer. For the aftmost holes I still ended up using MK-319BS blind rivets since I still don't have a bucking bar small enough to fit.
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| A bit of filler before paint and no one will notice... |
Next up was finishing the inboard rib, and with that the riveting on the right elevator is done with the exception of the fiberglass tip. I installed the rest of the hardware for attaching the counterweight and called it a night.
