Tougher Than it Looks! HOBBS 124.0 hrs

Well, I have been working on bending my trim tab and left elevator. For the uninitiated, this involves bending two opposing flanges to close up both ends of the trim tab and also one end of the elevator. This part of the design, in my opinion is kind of a sloppy way to do it, even if you are skilled at this the appearance wont be great. It looks pretty straightforward but once you get into it, it is very difficult to get a nice clean, straight bend line with blocks of wood that dont seem to want to stay in place.

Once you are done bending the flanges into place, you used pop rivets to secure the assembly together and these rivets in a worst case scenario could rub on each other which is a small concern. It'll be more clear what I am talking about when I post some pics of this. I have seen other builders actually build a very small homemade rib to rivet in place and just cut the flanges off, which gives a nice clean edge. I thought about doing this, but decided against it since it would not be quite as aerodynamic.

I've already done the trim tab and last night I tackled the left elevator version and it really didnt come out too well. So I decided that was a good stopping point and all night and today I was contemplating my options, trying to fix it, or maybe manufacture some kind of rib to accomplish the task and still be aerodynamic. After getting home from work, I finally decided to try and make a go of it one more time and if I screwed it up worse, I would just order a new part. I was mostly successful at getting it come out good, but I still really am not happy with it. I just dont like the bend lines, I may use some SuperFil from Spruce

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/superfil.php

to doctor the appearance of this up later and hide the rivets. It is essentially a lightweight aircraft bondo. I will probably use this same stuff when I blend in the empennage tips as well. I am considering just ordering a new trim tab and redoing this part since it should be cheap and I will have plenty of time to tackle it in the coming months....but we'll see.