elevator fitting

[prkaye]

"Trial fit" my elevators and rudder today... used undersized bolts (didn't want to drill for required bolts yet... will do that for final assembly).

My elevators have much less downward travel than upward travel... the downward travel is blocked by the control horns, see photo below. Is this normal? When the airplane is finally assembled, will there be another "stop" mechanicsm for elevator and rudder travel? Right now the only "stop" for rudder and upward elevator travel is when the edges of the skins touch.

[Scott Will]

Yes, all the stops are on the fuselage. No worries there.

Have you notched the flange of the rear spar? This will allow more downward movement. I believe that note is on the plans. Hard to tell from the pic if you did that.

You can check further back in the assembly manual to see what the deflections are. Don't have it in front of me, though.

Scott

[prkaye]

Notching the flange... no, i didn't notice that in the plans. The flange is already sort of "notched", as you can sort of see in the photo the flange is smaller near the middle. Should it be notched completely out where the control horns bump it? This is something perhaps I'll wait until assembly to do.

How do the fuselage stops work? Where are the contact points on the control surfaces themselves?

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Originally Posted by Scott Will

Yes, all the stops are on the fuselage. No worries there.

Have you notched the flange of the rear spar? This will allow more downward movement. I believe that note is on the plans. Hard to tell from the pic if you did that.

You can check further back in the assembly manual to see what the deflections are. Don't have it in front of me, though.

Scott

9's don't require the notch to be cut.

[cnpeters]

Phil,
There will be stops later on the fuse that will limit travel further. In Van's instructions (Finishing the Elevators) there are callouts to check elevator travel for now - 25-30 degrees up, 20-25 down. I used a Smart Level to check.