T

twood007

I'm New Here
I'm looking for some already built elevator, and rudder with thicker skins for my time machine. I have almost 400hrs on my 4 and had to pull the tail feathers off due to significant cracking around rivets. Trying to avoid the build...Any ideas?
 
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Re skinning

I once heard an experience A&P quote a guy 8 hours labor to re skin the elevators on an RV-6.
Something to think about.
 
custom made

I doubt that someone elses elevators and rudder will fit onto your airplane. The parts are not made in a factory jig but custom fitted to a particular airplane.

I am in the process of contructing a new elevator for my -4 due to some cracking. ( not in the usual places ).

Chris M
 
Welcome to VAF!!!!

Tyler, welcome aboard the good ship VAF:D

Sorry, cant help with the tail feathers for your 4----

Good to have you here, and good luck in finding the parts you need.
 
new .020

Don't think there is an easy way out of this. I did it to my 4 and used my original forward webs with bearings and pitch horns as an assembly so they would fit what ever I measured first. There are ways to transfer the holes on the original skins to the new skins. I'm retired but could help if you need it, I'm near Sacramento and don't have a lot to do. I will give my cell # to you in your IM.

Randy
 
Tyler, take Randy up on his offer.

He is well known in the RV community around here, does great work.

My 10 would still be a bunch of parts if it had not been for Randy.
 
Randy is your best option

The guys are right, the chances of all the hinges lining up on elevators and rudders exactly from one 4 to another are slim, but you may be lucky. They are all individually built so will vary according to each builders ability to measure out and drill exactly.

I also doubt whether anyone will have a set of thicker skinned ones lying around doing nothing........ but normal skinned one do come up on the site from time to time. In fact there were some on her about a month ago.

Thicker skins are a good idea but I suspect the best route is with Randy to get these......... dont forget to redo your weight and balance as it will move with more weight on the rear.
 
Have a complete set from a kit that I bought to finish. Need to find a new home for them. Send PM and I can sent pics
ML
 
change in drawings for elevator

I recieved my elevator parts today and the E=402 spar was 3/4 inch shorter than the prints called for. The guy at Van's was adamant that it was correct but it was obvious that it was shorter than the plans called for and the one on the airplane. After much consternation, they emailed me the sketch ( which is what you get now since " nobody scratch builds anymore").

At some point they deleted the 3/4 inch removed from the inbd spar web and the spar flange doesn't go to the edge of the skin. That was worth a few hours of frustration! My plans date 1980 last updated 1992. I guess that was the problem.

ChrisM.
 
SportAvServ said:
Don't think there is an easy way out of this. I did it to my 4 and used my original forward webs with bearings and pitch horns as an assembly so they would fit what ever I measured first. There are ways to transfer the holes on the original skins to the new skins.
Click to expand...

Randy, sounds like you also reused the ribs. What is your method for transferring the holes from the old skins to new skins?
 
I wanna know too!

Randy,
Please post your procedure for copying skin/rib holes over from old to new skins..
I am looking at doing the same thing possibly with wing leading edge skins.. and wing ribs.. and want to try transferring the already drilled and dimpled holes on the ribs to the new leading edges..
thanks, Jim
 
Sorry to hear about the cracking. Just for the record, .016 skins work fine, if you fabricate them correctly to start with. Many of us have .016 control surfaces flying for hundreds, if not thousands of hours, with no cracks.
(actually, I had one rudder crack on the skin near the spar, but it was there from day one, not sure what happened or why.)
No other cracks in rudder or elevators, - 500 hours....
 
I recently re-skinned an RV4 elevator and it was a LOT of work (if someone can do this in 8 hours I'd like to meet him)!
The process I used was something like this:

1) CAREFULLY remove old skin (elongated hole are not allowed).
2) trim new skin to the approx size using old skin as a template, make cutouts for hinges and tab.
2a) Install new (or use the old) stiffeners on new skin
3) bend new skin to close part way
4) mount and backdrill one side of the new skin with a few holes along the fwd spar
5) cut the old skin at the bend then use it as a template to complete the drilling on one side.
6) close the skin all the way and backdrill a few holes in the other side of the skin.
7) use the old skin as a template to complete the drilling.
8) oh yea, don't forget to bend and trim the skin for the trim tab (real pain to make sure that the old tab fits and lines up properly).
9) rivet and paint.

The whole project took me about 3-4 days. Pround to say the "new" elevator looked better than the original
 
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Reskinning

I also reskinned an elevator on my -4. If I have to do it again I will just build a whole new elevator (custom fit to my HS of course).
 
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