What a marathon, but it really feels great to have one of the first moving parts of the airplane done. When I first began the elevators I had no idea how involved they would become, but this truly was one of the more involved and challenging parts of the build so far. This also makes it one of the more rewarding accomplishments as well. The primary delay for completing the elevators was a shortage of appropriate tools. It’s been a while, but I’ll put some lessons learned at the bottom of this post again. Key among them: use nice tools. Once I got this one through my brain, I was able to finish shaping the counterbalance weights and bending the piano hinge center pin to the correct shape to hold it in place.
There they are. Gorgeous. But as I type this I realize that I need to go back and double check that the nuts are on the correct side of the elevator and won’t interfere with the travel of them while in flight. Not a big deal, but another good example of how I’m building this plane. I read every step of the process twice, plan out the execution, do the work, then check it again with the manual to ensure that it was done right. Then I tend to go back over again while I type up these posts and review my work once more. It sounds tedious, but it is an important process to get down. Keeping in a rhythm like this is what enables me to build a safe and airworthy plane. But I digress… More photos.
Gotta find somewhere to put these guys that isn’t on my truck bed…
Naturally, finishing up one part gives you quite a jolt of motivation and I tend to roll straight into the next part of the build that same day. Sounds weird to not stop at a logical place, but I can’t help myself.
I started by fabricating this rear tie down anchor post. Pretty basic, just some cutting down to precise dimensions and tapering down one end. The real trick came in making a good square tap in the end for the tie down bolt.
I’m not sure why, but I actually had the exact tap required in my tool chest to accomplish this. I’d say “it’s the small things” but at the end of the day it felt like a pretty big win. I clamped the part in place and built a little jig to ensure I threaded the tap in perfectly straight and it worked well. Good results.
None of this would have been possible without the right tools. I cannot emphasize enough the need to have not only the right tool for the job, but a quality tool for the job. I spent the past week analyzing some of my past work, examining cut metal parts and various other items. I realized I spent more time shaping and deburring cut pieces than was really necessary because I had a really cheap and improper band saw blade loaded up. Do yourself a favor, for this type of aluminum, spend the money and get a good blade. At least 3/8″ (get a 1/2″ if your saw can handle it) and 14-18 TPI (unless you are using a specialty metal blade, which is even above and beyond super high quality). I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of making my first cuts with the new blade loaded up… What joy!
Anyways – get good tools. Do good work. On to more tailcone fun now!
Total time today = 1.5 hours
Total time empennage = 128 hours
Total time aircraft = 128 hours