Today I worked on the elevator trim access doubler and the trim pushrod arm.
After dimpling several nutplates, I riveted them to the access plate doubler. I squeezed the rivets, but in hindsight it might have been better to back rivet these. The very thin material means that it twists very easily, and i had a couple of less than perfect rivets, one of which I ended up drilling and removing.
Then it was on to the pushrod arm. This is made of 3 pieces of aluminum riveted together. The internal piece is shorter than the two outside pieces forming an attach point in each end. At one end, the outside pieces are also pre-bent to provide a wider opening for a wider part to attach.
The outside pieces need to be countersunk, and then flush riveted. This is quite straight forward except for the one hole closest to the bent parts. The bends mean that the part doesn’t sit flat, and the countersink cage contacts the surface unevenly. I used some scrap and made a couple of shims to use to accommodate the bends, and to support the opening at the end.
Riveting was fairly easy, I squeezed the 3-3.5 rivets, while being careful to only squeeze the rivet and not the material. The shop head is small inside the countersink, but wide enough to form a very strong bond. I’ll touch up the prime on this part again before wrapping up the elevators.
Next it was on to the elevator trim tab. I dimpled the closeout tabs, clecoed it together, drilled the close out tabs, marked the trailing edge wedge and skins, put a break in the skin trailing edges, then trimmed the trailing edge wedge. I set up the drill press for countersinking the trailing edge, then decided to stop for the night.
