AN3 hardware required for empennage

[dbaflyer]

I have the empennage components complete and was starting to look at trial fitting the elevators to the HS and the rudder to the VS. The AN3 hardware I have on hand (came with the empennage kit per inventory sheet) shows I have 8 AN3-7A and 2 AN3-10A bolts. One of the AN3-10A bolts is used on the bottom rudder rod end bearing. I can not find anywhere on the plans where the other one is used. Anyone? I also see where 6 of the AN3-7A bolts are used. Two per elevator and 2 on the rudder for the rod end bearing attach points. I can not find anywhere for the other 2. Anyone?

I figure Vans would not have included them if they weren't to be used somewhere. I'm not wanting to have any place on my airplane where hardware should be installed but isn't.

Thanks for the help.

 

[N8RV]

Extra pieces-parts

I'm not sure about Van's inventory discipline these days, but "back in the day" when I was digging through sacks of nuts-n-bolts-n-rivets-n-such, it wasn't uncommon to have a boatload of things like rivets left over, and even a few larger items, like nuts, bolts and screws. Some counts were EXACT, and others not so much.

I finally got around to installing my rear seat rudder pedals over the weekend. I had a lot of stuff left over -- rivets, an odd nut plate, an extra cotter pin ...

I wouldn't sweat it. I've been flying for a year and a half, and was really amazed at the leftover parts I just found last week when I was cleaning the hangar -- extra parts that I'd ordered because I screwed up the first, parts for building options (like adjustable rudder pedals) and stuff that came with the FWF kit that I didn't need, and a few part that don't fall into any of those categories. No clue what they go to. The plane flies great, so apparently they weren't needed.

 

[Mike S]

Get yourself some compartmented plastic boxes, and just start saving extra hardware.

Label the items, so when the plans call out for something it is easy to find.

I prefer to do this right at the start, forget those bags...they are a pain

 

[bruceh]

There will be lots of extras when you get the fuselage kit. One of the bags is marked as "extra HW" and contains a bunch of nuts, bolts, washers, and cotter pins. I just dug out my bag of empennage attach HW this weekend to get the tail attached. There is definitely more there than you need. Keeping it all organized is not my strong suit. I'll definitely get some storage containers like Mike has.