Trim Tab Work

Today started bright and early. I had a flight lesson in a Comanche 250 today to add to my complex time for my commercial rating but after that we went home and got straight to work on the RV. Since we finished the left elevator (except for the leading edge) we got to work on the trim tab. Everywhere, I read that the trim tab is difficult to get correct.. even the plans tell us this, great!

We already had the trailing edge bent and did this the same way as with the elevators, we also finished the tabs. So we continued by prepping all of the parts and getting them primed. With 110 degree heat we were pretty sure this would be a feasable task, eventhough the humidity was somewhat high. It was a good thing we primed when we did, lightning strikes started three fires today in our area and ash began to blow a couple hours after we had primed. The CDF tankers had their job cut out for them!

Once the parts were primed we worked on the hinge and got it trimmed to size, this took a bit of studying on the plans but we have it looking like it should. We then began riveting the spar to the trim tab skin as well as the control horns, this was a little tricky, since there's not much room for a bucking bar, but we only had to use one OOPS rivet, so we're happy! So far the trim tabs lookin' good.

We got back to work on the trim servo plate and got the brackets riveted on, and like many others, we too found that we will have to fabricate some shims so the servo motor clears the rivets that hold the brackets to the plate.