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Anna

Active Member
Hello,

Some questions on the left elevator from the RV8:

1. When do we have to final drill the E-606-PP frame to the E-701-L skin? Before bending the elevator or after bending the elevator?

2. Does it make sense to dimple the E-701-L skin and to countersink the E-606-PP frame before drilling the trim tab hinge bracket? Isn?t it more useful to drill the hinge bracket before countersinking and dimpling?

3. Should we leave the left elevator open on back side to install the stuff for the trim servo? Should we install the trim servo before riveting the understructure to the E-701-L skin?

It would be great, if you would have some answers?

Best wishes from Bavaria and a happy new year! :)
Anna
 
I am just about to close my left elevator up so we are at about the same place. You can visit my blog site for all the gory details if you wish.

1. I waited until after bending the skin to match drill the E606PP to the skin. This way I could tell if the fit of the rear spar looked OK or not.
2. With E606-PP being the rear spar, the short answer is Yes, it makes sense. You will dimple the E 701 skin just as with any other skin on the aircraft, and then countersink the TOP SIDE of the E606-PP so that the dimples will fit in there. The hinge that fits on the back of the elevator then fits underneath the E606-PP spar flange, which is still smooth on the bottom, since you only countersunk the top of it. You are not supposed to dimple or countersink the hinge according to the plans from Vans. Many builders apparently do not do this right, and they then end up asking questions about countersinking the hinge because they accidentally dimple the top of the spar when it should have been countersunk.

So do the match drilling, dimpling, and countersinking of the skin and the spar first, so that they are in their final position when the time comes to fit and final drill the hinge to the elevator. You can’t really drill the hinge that attaches to the elevator too early anyway, because you will need to trial fit the trim tab to this area first to determine where the hinge actually needs to be positioned to ensure proper clearance and fit of the trim tab.

3. Vans instructions say to perform the work for the trim tab servo or the manual cable attachment prior to closing up the elevator skin to allow for better access to that area. Most builders I know, myself included, are waiting until AFTER the skin is riveted. There are some alignment issues with the electric trim mounting bracket (if you are going with the electric trim servo) that require adusting them for proper alignment of the pushrod from the servo output arm to the trim tab control horn. The actual measurements for the location of the mounting brackets turn out to be a bit different than what is shown on the plans from Vans. You will need to have the trim tab fitted into place in order to accomplish this correctly.

So it is not so much about leaving the BACK of the elevator open, as it is about having enough access through the bottom hole of the support bracket, or perhaps through the front while the skins are not riveted to the front spar yet. Most folks seem to have plenty of clearance to fit the trim servo inside after it is all closed up, and I plan to do the same.

Oh, and just make sure you have attached the support bracket (the big one) to the bottom of the elevator with the nut plates installed. Not sure if you have already done that or not.

Hope this helps.
 
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Hi Flyin'Bryan,

Sorry, that I write so late, but our Kit arrived those days and we were so busy and excited, so I forgot everything else? :D

Thank you very, very much for your help! Your answer is very, very helpful and detailed! This weekend we will get our elevators ready, except the trim tap? I hope we get it at the first try? ;)

Best wishes from Bavaria
Anna
 
Anna,

Good luck on the trim tab, I made two.

Here's a tip on the bend line that I did't figure out initially and its not mentioned in the instructions. Make sure you position your block so that after the bend the bend will line up with the little tabs that extend out. There is a small amout of adjustment you can make with the position of the block within the area where the bend relief holes are located. I thought initially that the position just had to be within bend relief holes, but then I realized that I had bent one of the tabs too far inward and the little tab stuck out too much relative bend.

Just a hint hope it helps.
 
Glad it helped...

Anna said:
Hi Flyin'Bryan,

Sorry, that I write so late, but our Kit arrived those days and we were so busy and excited, so I forgot everything else… :D

Thank you very, very much for your help! Your answer is very, very helpful and detailed! This weekend we will get our elevators ready, except the trim tap… I hope we get it at the first try… ;)

Best wishes from Bavaria
Anna
Click to expand...

I noticed at that time that you had written a couple of posts in different places and may have gotten the answers you needed elsewhere. Anyway, hope it helped, and glad to see you are making progress.

I also noted your problem with the left elevator control horn hole alignment. Another 8 builder and friend of mine had similar problems, and ended up drilling extra holes with extra rivets after some of the original holes were enlarged after trying to match drill them to the holes in the control horn. I had no alignment problems whatsoever on mine, so the advice that others gave you to order a new E705 rib and control horn makes sense to me, and that should solve the problem. I have also had experiences where Van's has shipped me a replacement part that was obviously not bent correctly in the brake, leading to mis-aligned holes, so I think that new parts should solve your problem with that. If it doesn't you may need to check the front spar against the other one on the right and see if there are differences there. These parts should align correctly.

One other thing I try to do when I encounter a possible bad part problem is to tell Van's when I call them to check the alignment of the parts before they ship it. I don't know if they actually do that or not, but it's worth a request anyway, especially since you are located so much farther away from the supplier than I am, with longer shipping and delivery times I'm sure.

Off to roll my leading edges on the elevators now.....
KPR
 
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Hello!

Yes, we did so, we wrote Vans to check the assembly before sending it to us. I hope they did. And I hope the parts will arrive soon. I will write, if it works. But it can take some time, there’s unfortunately no time to get on this weekend…

Best wishes and thank you very much for your help!

Anna
 
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