Matt’s RV7 Build Log

After reflecting over christmas I decided to go the way of many who have gone before me and order another trim tab skin. The deciding factor was a lack of clearance between the elevator and trim tab where they meet on the trailing edge. I didn’t mark my line for the outboard tab bend using the square so after the bends were made the edge clearance goes to nil as it goes aft.

On the bright side I decided to do this now to save from drilling rivets or ordering all the other trim trim tab parts. Once the skin arrived on Thursday I made quick work out of redoing the bendsm matchdrilling, and dimpling all the parts.

Tasks Completed:

• Ordered and prepped new trim tab skin
• Deburred and dimpled all trim tab parts
• Countersank E607 trim tab spar
• Finished installing screws for E714 

Tasks Completed:

• Match drilled bottom of E607 flange
• Match drilled trim tab horns
• Match drilled top flange of E607 and hinge 

Okay–so after reading about putting this part together and an aborted attempt last night, I finally got around to bending the trim tab tabs for real.

First, I made another oak break with the interlocking notch at the top. I highly recommend oak or another hard wood because you are going put a lot of pressure on this break and you’ll want to minimize the flex.

The bends on each side worked very well this time. My only complaint is that I ended up with kinks on each trailing edge. This was caused by the trailing edge of the positive break was a tad thinner than the radius of the trim tab. So when all that pressure was applied the edge of the wood break put a kink in the trailing edge of the trim tab.

Tasks Completed:

• Bent inboard and outboard tabs of the trimtab
• Pop riveted elevator skin tabs
• Finished riveting left elevator skin to skeleton