Elev Trailing Edge

[s10sakota]

Okay guys, I made a nice bending brake to bend the trailing edge of the elevators. In fact, I made it 6' long so I can use it for the ailerons and flaps too.

I'm not sure how to get the trailing edge perfect though.

In the picture below, the first picture is from the middle of the elevator. You can see that there is a slight gap between the ruler and trailing edge.

The second photo is of the inside edge of the elevator and it looks like it is perfect.



If I sight down the trailing edge, it is absolutely perfectly straight. It just seems that is some spots, I can see a slight space between the ruler and skin.

I think the skin is bent plenty far enough. When I clecoed the front spar in, I had to spread the skin apart slightly. I'm not sure bending it further will help the trailing edge.

Oh and also, yes I did have the trailing edge all the way up against the hinge. I've read on a few logs that this was the key to getting a nice trailing edge.

As always, thank you for the help and advice

[hydroguy2]

if you want you can take seaming pliers and squeeze locally a bit to get it to lay down a touch. Go easy, if you do as a little can go a long ways.

Or build on, as this can be looked at again alter if you want.

[cjensen]

Take Brian's second suggestion Mark. Don't worry about getting them perfect right now. Just make a note, and revisit it after you get the tail mounted to the fuselage.

[s10sakota]

Brian, there's no way I'm even going to try your first suggestion!

One little tweak with the seaming pliers the wrong way and I'd have a dent or crease or something

If I revisit it later, I won't be able to put it back in the bending brake once the elevator spar is riveted on right? I'm not sure how else to make it perfect. I've already put it back in the bending jig and it doesn't seem to change anything.

My trailing edge is perfectly straight and I'm totally happy with it as is. I guess I'm just wondering if left as is, will it affect flight characteristics at all? I wouldn't think it would, but I would like to make this airplane as perfect as I can.

[Bob Barrett]

You are safest to leave it alone as Chad suggested and it was Brian's second and really preferred method of dealing with it. I suspect you will never notice it once mounted. It will probably never be noticable in flight. I had a slight bend upward on left wing upper outer skin trailing edge on my RV-6A. I worried a lot about it but there is no adverse effect flying it and Chad never remarked about it when he saw my airplane. Of course Chad is a very kind person so maybe he didn't want to hurt my feelings. However I don't hesitate to kid him about his fruity beer!

[Wicked Stick]

I worried about this when I built my ailerons and flaps and got them to about where yours are. I chose to leave them as yours are now and fly it first to see.

Long story short... After taking the time to precisely set the wing incidence and sweep, and carefully rigging the ailerons and flaps, the plane fly's beautifully with no heavy wing or adverse inputs to the control surfaces.

Translation... You should be fine with what you have in those pictures .

[s10sakota]

Done! Will move on. Thanks all!