After a long day at work I only had a couple hours to spend on the project, but I managed to get the final assembly started on the left elevator. I had to file away part of the leading edge tabs next to the counterbalance skin on either side since they were scraping against one another. It's probably not a huge deal, but I don't need anything adding to the stressful experience that is rolling the leading edges of the skin.
 |
| Needs some work... |
 |
| Much better! |
The process from here is pretty much identical to that of the right elevator: rivet the counterbalance skin to the main skin, place the counterweight with bolts in place into the counterbalance skin, rotate the skeleton into place, and put clecos in everything.
I went to cleco the trim spar into place when I noticed a small deformation of the lower skin near the closeout I had just finished. I used the hand seamer in an attempt to flatten it a bit, but that only made a small difference. It isn't perfect, but at least it won't look terrible anymore.
 |
| This part of the skin is supposed to sit flat on the spar, so a deformation like this will be pretty noticeable. |
With everything clecoed in place I could start the riveting process proper. I only managed to get the main spar riveted on either side before I ran out of time.
 |
| A good start! |
