Finished the Elevators

After installing the counterweights and trim tabs the elevators are now finished. The counterweights are just big chunks of lead that need to be cut down to size. This is a bit of a pain because of how soft they are. I eventually used a combination of a sawzall, a chisel, and a hammer to get the pieces to their final shape. The counterweights work great; below is a picture of me balancing the elevator on its hinge point, pretty neat.

Now for the trim tabs. Of course I can't seem to finish a part without screwing something up. This time it was the piano hinge that attaches the trim tab. I was using the pneumatic squeezer and it crushed the hinge and the rivet. After some squeezer adjustments, drilling out about 15 rivets, and borrowing a hinge from my inventory of fuselage parts, I was back up and running in only a short while. I attached the hinge pin in the same style that I wrote about on 5/30 save a few changes that were made for the RV-10. When finished, I stood the elevators next to all the other parts I have built, just for a since of accomplishment, before calling it a night. Sat (5.0)