Ivan's RV-7

Working on elevator control stopsTimer icon2h

September 1, 2023

A small amount of work to set up the elevator control stops.

First, I filed the up elevator stop angle to get the desired up travel. The right elevator hinge is a bit aft compared to the left one, so it hits the stop first. I filed the stop to get ~28° up travel, and the left elevator still did not hit the stop, even though I used the whole 1" angle. The right stop is 7/8", which is 1/16" longer than the plans show (13/16").

Up elevator stop.

I can maybe file it a bit more to get both hinges to contact the stop at the same time, but I'll think about it later. I don't want to go past the limit of the maximum travel, 30°. Without the vertical stabilizer, it should be easy to file the stop later.

I also filed the down stop. This time, the left hinge contacts it first. For that, I had to remove the horizontal stabilizer so I could trim its flange as per plans. I did not do it when I built it. In retrospect, I should have done it. I don't think these flanges do much work anyway (since they are close to the end of both halves of the spar). On the other hand, I only trimmed about half of the flange (width-wise), whereas the plans show almost the whole flange.

For the down travel, I got ~22°. The plans require 20° to 25°, so I am in the limits, but I can file a bit more to get closer to the 25°. I'll think about it later when I am closer to assembling everything for the last time.

Also, I got my MS21042 nuts, and it seems like it should solve my problem on the elevator. It is definitely much smaller!

Smaller MS21042-4 nut.

Then I primed the few parts I have (primarily, so I can rivet the up elevator stop angle).

Primed a few parts.