Part of the final drilling process is to cleco and final drill #30 the elevator horns into position on the rib/front spar. I’d read that some builders have had issues with this … Vans ask you to cleco/final drill the horns to the rib/spar prior to riveting the rib to the front spar using the 426’s (countersunk heads to provide clearance for the horn to sit flush) . Obviously you can’t cleco the rib to the front spar whilst clecoing the horn, since the holes are underneath the horn. Apparently, due to slight variations in the flange bend on the rib, when the rib is riveted with the 426’s, alignment has been lost and the final drilled holes for the horn are slightly misaligned. One poor chap ended up building another elevator!

Anyway, I clecoed on the horn and checked the rib/spar hole alignment, which now wasn’t perfect. It’s probably close enough not to worry, but I thought I’d dimple the rib/spar holes, temporarily insert some rivets to ensure alignment, then cleco/final drill the horn.

Here’s the horn clecoed in position ready for final drilling with the rivets holding rib/spar alignment.

Right Horn Issue

Whilst doing all this I suddenly noticed that on the right hand horn only, the powder coating was detaching.

Not good, and certainly not suitable for fitting to the plane in it’s current state. Not sure if this has happened whilst in storage over the last 3 months, or whether I missed it during the inventory. Probably missed it. Anyway, either I get it sandblasted and recoated, or I phone up Van’s and get another shipped over. Will have to see if I can move on with the right elevator in the meantime….probably can, but will have to be re-clecoed for final drilling of the new/repaired horn. Hmmm……