I'm waiting on my new yoke to finish off the rudder, so time to switch gears and start working on the elevators. These are built similarly to the rudder, using mostly stiffeners instead of ribs as the internal structure.
Just like the rudder stiffeners, Van's supplies a big bundle of angle that has to be cut down to the correct length and shape. For the rudder, all of the stiffeners were different sizes, but for the elevators they're mostly the same. The one exception is on the left elevator, where there is a section of shorter stiffeners/skin to make room for the trim tab. I went ahead and cut, shaped, and deburred enough stiffeners for both the left and right elevator (minus the short ones).
The simple step of match drilling the stiffeners to the skin is complicated by the fact that the skin comes rolled at the leading edge. A board, clamps and some rope worked relatively well, but I can see that back riveting the stiffeners in is going to be pretty awkward.
Once I figured out how to keep the skin open, I got both sides of stiffeners in and match drilled. The bend at the leading edge makes it difficult to get the stiffeners to lay flat while the skin is open, but it's doable. It's amazing how such a flimsy piece of sheet can get so rigid with the addition of the stiffeners. Completely done with the match drilling, I pulled it all apart and deburred the stiffener holes. I finished deburring the outside of the skin as well, but landscaping chores cut work on the plane short, so I'll deburr the inside and edges of the skin another day.
