HS309 Flange Bearing Trimming

The instructions call out for six rivets to be used holding the Flange Bearing sandwiched with the HS309 brackets. However, the drawings show the back side of the assembly being trimmed off, and five rivets as a result.
I do not understand why the bearing assembly would be trimmed unless there is some kind of interference, which also does not make sense considering the elevator horns pivot here.

If I recall correctly.
The HS309 brackets are made from aluminum angle. When you position the bearing, (center pivot point) the correct distance aft of the horizontal stabilator you may find the "leg" of the angle the bearing is riveted to is too short to make it all the way to the end of the bearing.

by the way,
since you are working on the horizontal tail have you noticed that the steel elevator horns as supplied by VAN are for the RV4 and they are taller than the elevator spars and will need to be trimed to fit.

Also check the elevator horns carefully.
I found the distance, (dimension) from the elevator horn pivot point, (bearing) to the hole where the elevator push rod attaches is not the same as the plans call-out

Jon,

Welcome to the world of RV-3 building! Get used to conflicting or incomplete information. In cases such as this just use common sense and move on. You've built an RV before and know how the thing goes together.

Regarding the part in question, I really don't remember what I did, but you're welcome to stop by my hangar and take a look. With this situation common sense tells me that whether it's 5 or 6 1/8 rivets it will be plenty strong either way. Also, you could easily make the HS-309 longer, there's nothing behind it to get in the way, and I have no idea why the show it trimmed off.

Bottom line: you will end up "interpreting" things in many places along the way and using a little creative ingenuity.

Yep

It is exactly as Fred said. You make the bracket out of 2 x 1 1/2 angle and the 2" falls short of fully covering the bearing flange. No big deal.

I have already found several part number issues, mistakes, poor and missing instructions and I have not even finished the HS spar! The very first part.

I have already made my first mistake on locating the two inboard hinge brackets. I worked around that easily enough by widening the base on those two brackets from 3/4" to 1" to work around the errant holes and keep my rivet spacing. Not a big deal and it only shifts the rivets outboard a 1/4" or so on the center line of that bracket leg. Plenty strong and no concern. I did not want to rework the spar completely.
I am sure I will make plenty more mistakes and have to work around them. I learned on my 6 that it takes less time to fix an issue than you spend worrying about it, so, go to work and get it done.
Man, these instructions are worse than my six, which where really bad.

This is going to be fun. (and I really mean that.)

RV3 Elevator Bearing Bracket Length

The wonderful world of RV3 building!

Unless I simply cannot add up (very possible), the bracket distance from the base to the centre line of the bearing is 1 1/16, the bearing radius is about 13/16, so total distance from bottom to top of bearing is 1 14/16 (1 7/8). The angle provided is 2". I made my bracket using the whole 2" and rounded off the top to match the bearing. Looks very smart. There is nothing to interfere with the additional length.

I am loving building the RV3, much more fabrication rather than just matching up holes all the time! I am in no rush, so am just really enjoying taking my time. I am getting the impression that alot of plain commonsense (together with the experience of already having built an RV7) is going to be required to get around the manifest mistakes etc already found in the drawings. I don't think configuration control is high on Van's priorites when making mods to the RV3 plans or parts.

Mark

PS: VS-2 on the plans for the Vert Stab front spar is actually VS-302 on the inventory and on the spar label!

Mark Castle-Smith said:

I am getting the impression that alot of plain commonsense (together with the experience of already having built an RV7) is going to be required to get around the manifest mistakes etc already found in the drawings.
Mark

PS: VS-2 on the plans for the Vert Stab front spar is actually VS-302 on the inventory and on the spar label!

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Aboslutely correct, a heavy does of common sense is required, which is really why only previous RV builders should be taking on a -3 in this day and age. Also, get used to the parts reference errors, there are plenty, but with a bit of detective work, deductive reasoning, and common sense you'll figure it out.