On a recent trip to Harbor freight I picked up another pair of adjustable height support stands to help figure out why the tail doesn’t seem to be lining up right.
I leveled the fuselage left-right with a water level at the wing attach points. From there I levelled each stab half with a bubble level.
I also raised the tail to level the stab halves front-back and then rechecked the other measurements. I spent lots of time scratching my head, but here’s a summary on what I have so far. The stab halves seem to be built with a little bit of error in the vertical positioning of the parts. I wonder if the left and right halves were built in the same jig, such that a slight error due to gravity would be down on one half and up on the other half, thus providing the 1/8″ or so error that I see between the left and right halves. My solution is to adjust the hinge supports a little so that the elevator halves will be parallel, and just accept the error in the trim system.
The trim horns don’t quite line up right, so there will be a little bit of binding and friction. Since the trim system needs a little friction anyway, this will work out well. Also, the trim horn only moves slightly, so I don’t know if the binding will even be noticeable in the range of motion that it will see in service.
In the end there might be a slight difference in height between the left and right stab halves (1/8″ or so) but both will be level with reference to the wing attach points, so I’m not really concerned.
I spent some time getting the aluminum part of the flap handle finished. I drilled holes where the notches would go, and plan to take the piece home to cut out on my wood cutting bandsaw. I started making up the fuel lines that connect the tanks to the inboard rib. Tonight at the EAA meeting Wade brought his punch and cut out the lightening holes in the battery box.
The conduit punch had no trouble with the thin steel.