ELEVATOR



  Separation & Preparation     Construction     Finished Unit     Curved Fairing  

The trim tab shown with the full elevator.  This is the correct size and spacing for the trim tab.  I used a full width piano hinge to join the trim tab to the elevator.  I also used pop rivets centered on each hinge tab to join the tab.  This was taken just before separating the two halves of the elevator.
This view shows the shape of the elevator counter weight during initial shaping.  Some additional shaping was done prior to final glassing.  The result is very narrow gaps and a very clean look.
This shows the big boo-boo that I made on the trim tab.  You can see the lighter area where the hinge line would have been if I had not caught the error before cutting the trim tab from the elevator.  I had to rework the area to get the hinge and internal spar areas but it worked out OK.
Here you can see the reworked internal area of the trim tab.  A small amout of filler and it looks good.  The best part about working with fiberglass is the ability to rework when you make a mistake.

The counterweight ends (below) have been shapped to form a uniform gap between the end and the horizontal stabilizer.  The wite foam board was glued on, sanded to shape and glassed over.