All the priming completed during last night's session has completely dried and is ready for the next step. So, I started the process of final assembly of the Elevator. To get things started, I riveted the E-921 Gusset to the E-905 Left Root Rib using AN470AD4-4 as instructed by the plans. The picture below is from the left side of the Elevator and also shows the black snap bushing inserted into the Front Spar. This is where electrical wires will pass through the Spar for the electric trim motor. The bushing is designed to prevent chaffing of the wires that get passed through the hole.
The next step in the plans called for the E-903 Tip Ribs and E-904 Tip Ribs to be riveted togethert. I didn't take any pictures of the Ribs, but here is an excerpt from the plans. These pieces used AN470AD4-4 and AN426AD4-4 rivets.
Next, all the Root Ribs, Tip Ribs, Hinge Reinforcement Plates, and Nutplates were riveted to the left and right Front Spars. Here is one of the four Nutplates and Hinge Reinforcement Plates attached to the Front Spar.
Lastly (for today), the E-913 Counterbalance Skins were clecoed to the Tip Ribs. In the picture, you can see two rows of rivets (there is also two rows on the opposite side and end). One row is for the E-903 Tip Rib and the other is for the E-904 Tip Rib. Each of the Counterbalance Skins took 50 AN426AD3-3.5 rivets in this step. There are an additional six holes in the Counterbalance Skins that will be riveted when the Elevator Skins are attached to the assembly.
It doesn't seem like all that much work was accomplished today, but I set approximately 140 rivets during this session. However, as the pieces get riveted together, they start to look like airplane parts.....that continues to motivate! There are still many rivets left to complete the Elevator, but every rivet set is forward progress toward completion.