Elevator

Drilling and Attaching Clecoes

8/13/11 - Indentified parts for the elevator and laid them out on the assembly table. Drilled and clecoed the Elevator Inboard Rear Ribs (75T3-3I), Elevator Nose Ribs (75T3-2) and the Elevator Middle Ribs (75T3-3M) to the Elevator Spar (75T3-5). Drilled out Left Nose Rib Forward Tooling Hole with a step drill in order to fit a rubber grommet in the hole. Clecoed the Elevator Tip Rib (75T3-1) and the Elevator Rear Skins (75T4-3) to the Elevator Skeleton. Drilled and clecoed the Bent Strips (75T3-4) to each Tip Rib. Also drilled and clecoed the Elevator Hinge Pin (75T3-9) to each Tip Rib. Cut and drilled "L" angles and attached to the Rear Channel (75T3-10) and clecoed to the Inboard Rear Ribs. Total Time = 8 hrs.

Taping the Nose Skin in Place

8/14/11 - Trimmed the Middle Rib to the appropriate length. Trimmed the Elevator Trim Tab Channel (75T4-5) and inserted it into the Elevator Skeleton. Drilled and clecoed it into place. Removed clecoes along the leading edge on the spar. Inserted the Elevator Nose Skin (75T4-2) between the rear skin and spar. Tightened the Nose Skin and taped in place. Drilled and clecoed the Elevator Nose Skin to the Elevator Skeleton. Total Time = 6 hrs.


Drilling & Adding Clecoes

8/20/11 - Elevator Horn Assembly. Attached Upper Elevator Horn (75T3-8) and Lower Elevator Horn (75T3-7) to the Elevator Assembly with clecos. Drilled and clecoed Horn Angle (75T3-6) and "L" angle to the Elevator Assembly. Marked and trimmed "L" angle to match with the Upper and Lower Elevator Horns. Total Time = 4 hrs.

Nose Skin Clecoed in Place

9/10/11 - Drilled out and clecoed the nose skin to the proper size of A4 and A5 rivets holes for the area closest to the elevator horn. Total time = 4 hrs. 
 


Elevator Horn

 9/17/11 - Drilled and clecoed remaining holes in the nose skin to the proper rivet size. Cutout and trimmed the trim tab channel opening. Removed the nose skins for deburring the rivet holes and trimming to the proper size prior to riveting. Drilled and clecoed the trim tab hinge (75T4-6) to the elevator trim tab (75T4-4). Drilled and clecoed the trim tab hinge to the rear skin. Total Time = 8 hrs.

Elevator Trim Servo & Rod Clecoed in Place

9/24/11 - Placed the Trim Servo (T2-7A-TS) at the proper location on the Elevator Rear Skin, drilled and clecoed the Trim Servo in place. Found the midway point on the trim servo arm and cut the trim servo rod to 130 mm in order to install the rod from the trim tab hinge to the servo arm with the trim tab in the neutral position. Drilled out remaining holes in the elevator skeleton and the elevator horn assembly. Removed all clecoes, trimmed elevator parts and deburred all drilled holes . Total time = 11 hrs.


Deburring, Cleaning and Applying Anti-Corosion Protection

9/25/11 - Cleaned all surfaces and coated with anti-corrosion protection. Re-assembled elevator skeleton and riveted together. Re-attached top and rear skins to skeleton with clecoes. Soldered wires from the servo motor to the 5 foot length of the 5 wire electric cable. Drilled and clecoed the cable clamps to the elevator main spar and routed the 5 wire cable through the cable clamps. Total time = 5 hrs.
   


Servo Trim 5-Wire Clamped in Place

 10/1/11 - Trimmed the hinge pin 3/4 of an inch shorter than the trim tab hinge and re-inserted pin back in the barrel of the hinge. Re-attached the horn assembly to the skeleton. Total Time = 3 hrs.



Riveting Skins onto Skeleton

10/1/11 - Reattached the nose skins to the skeleton and riveted them in place. Riveted the top and rear skins to the skeleton. Riveted the trim tab hinge to the trim tab. Riveted the trim tab horn to the trim tab. Attached the trim tab horn to the servo arm with the provided linkage. Total Time = 8 hrs. 

A Thing of Beauty!

Elevator Complete

10/9/11 - Filed down the horizontal stabilizer horn so the elevator could rotate freely without hitting the nose skin. Total Time = 2 hrs.

Attaching the "L" Angle to the Horizontal Stabilizer Bottom Skin

10/23/11 - Aligned elevator hinge brackets (75T2-7) on the hinge pin and drilled and clecoed brackets to the horizontal stabilizer. Aligned the elevator so the ends were equal distant on the horizontal stabiler. Filed down more of the horizontal stabilizer horn so the elevator completely pivots on the hinges with free travel throughout. Attached the "L" angle to the horizontal bottom skin. Total Time = 5 hrs.

Elevator Joined to the Horizontal Stabilizer

   Total Elevator Assembly Time = 64 Hours



Horizontal Stabilizer

7/30/11 - Time to start the next assembly, the Horizontal Stabilizer. I installed the front and rear spar upper doublers (75T2-1), rear spar lower doubler (75T2-3) and the front spar lower doubler (75T2-2) to the horizontal stabilizer rear spar (75T1-5) as well as the horizontal stabilizer front spar (75T1-4). Drilled and clecoed in place using 1/8" clecoes. After that I cut "L" angles to the ends on the front spar. Drilled holes and clecoed the horizontal stabilizer front brackets (75T2-4) to the front spar. I drilled and clecoed the horizontal stabilizer rear ribs (75T1-3) to the front spar. Then I clecoed the rear spar the the rear ribs, drilled and clecoed the horizontal stabilizer nose ribs (75T1-2) to the front spar and trimmed the "L" angles and clecoed the tip ribs (75T1-1) to the rear spar. Ta Da! The skeleton was completed! Total Time = 8 hrs.


Drilling & Putting in Clecos
(See my helper in the bottom right corner)

Horizontal Stabilizer Skeleton: Rear Spar (75T1-5), Front and Rear Spar Upper Doublers (75T2-1), Rear Spar Lower Doubler (75T2-3), Front Spar (75T1-4), Front Spar Lower Doubler (75T2-2), "L" Angles, Front Brackets (75T2-4), Rear Ribs (75T1-3), Nose Ribs (75T1-2) and Tip Ribs (75T1-1).



Putting the Skeleton Together

7/31/11 - Time for the skin. Placed Horizontal Stabilizer Skin (75T4-1) onto the skeleton. Drilled and clecoed holes into the skin for an A4 size. Turned the whole structure upside down and started to pull skin over the rest of the skeleton using tie-down straps. Whew! Pulled skin tight onto the structure with the aid of the lumber so as not to damage the aluminum skin with the tiedown buckles. Found the centerlines that I had drawn on the flanges appearing through the pre-drilled pilot holes. Drilled and clecoed holes to A4 size and removed tie-down straps and lumber. Drilled out remaining holes to A4 size. Total Time = 7 hrs.



Pulling the Nose Skin in Place



Nice and Tight!

Trimmed Rear Bracket (75T2-5) using left & right hand cutters and then filed down smooth. Attached Center Hinge Bracket (75T2-7) and the Center Hinge Gusset (75T2-8) to the rear bracket with clecos. Total Time = 3 hrs.

Horizontal Stabilizer Skinned

8/6/11 - Filed rough edges off and smoothed the cut edges of the horizontal stabilizer rear bracket with Scotch Brite. Drilled holes to proper size and clecoed rear bracket assembly into place onto the rear spar. Completely disassembled the Horizontal Stabilizer to prepare aluminum for riveting. Deburred all holes and smoothed all surfaces of metal. Used Scotch Brite to rough up surfaces to accept anti-corrosion Cortec primer. Total Time = 12 hrs.

Applying Anti-Corrosion Cortec Primer

 8/7/11 - Reassembled Horizontal Stabilizer skeleton with clecos. Riveted rear bracket onto rear spar and attached top & bottom of center hinge bracket with (2) AN3-5A bolts, washers and nuts. Placed horizontal stabilizer skin onto skeleton and clecoed into place. Riveted skin to skeleton and removed all clecos. Total Time = 6 hrs.



Attaching Horizontal Stabilizer Horn



Total Horizontal Stabilizer Assembly Time = 36 hours.



Finished Horizontal Stabilizer.



Onward & Upward to the Elevator!

Rudder Assembly

7/16/11 - Assembly day has arrived! I had originally planned to start construction on the plane in the garage but due to the insufferable heat wave (90's and above) I wisely choose the basement instead. After moving the tables, table tops and tools to the basement, I began to locate all the parts necessary for constructing the rudder assembly. Lo and behold I finally found all the pieces as called out in the drawings. (Some of them were at the bottom of one of the large boxes. Murphy's Law is alive and well!) I watched the instruction video but I quickly realized that the rudder being built in the video was for a Zodiac 601/650. Similar but different, so I had to take it with a grain of salt. I just looked at the assembly diagrams and drawings and finally figured it out. I drilled holes in the rudder spar and the various ribs and attached the temporary cleco fasteners. Total Time = 11 hrs.

Rudder Parts: Rudder Spar (75R2-3), Rudder Horn (75R2-4), Spar Doublers (75R1-8), Rudder Bottom Rib#1 (75R1-1), Rudder Rear Rib#2 (75R1-2), Rudder Rear Rib#3 (75R1-3), Rudder Rear Rib#4 (75R1-4), Rudder Nose Rib (75R1-6), Rudder Tip (75R1-5), Bent Strip (75R1-7), Rear Skin (75R2-6) and Nose Skin (75R2-7).

Rudder Skeleton

7/17/11 - So, I decided to clean up the mess from yesterday before continuing on with the build process. I viewed the instruction video once again but used the information for reference only. Looking at the assembly diagrams and drawings I removed all the clecos I had placed in the parts the day before. I deburred all the holes that I had drilled, coated the parts with Cortec primer to help prevent corrosion and removed all labels. Finally the time had arrived to put the first rivet in! I have to admit my hand was shaking with the first one but I managed to completely rivet all parts together (and I have pictures to prove it). Total Time = 6 hrs.

Rudder Skins

7/23/11 - Phase II begins - Installing the rudder skins. After watching the instruction video & reviewing the photo assembly guide I placed the Rear skin (75R2-6) onto the skeleton. I drilled the holes into the skin and clecoed in place. Next came the Nose Skin (75R2-7). This was a bit more tricky. I had to tape it in place with duct tape and check on the positioning of it in relation to the spar with a square. After verifying the location I used the large clamps to keep it in place. I then drilled and clecoed the nose skin in place. I drew a line around the excess material on the nose skin at the tip rib. Then came the process of removing all the clecos and deburring all holes and filing down all rough edges. After trimming all rudder pieces according to the directions I applied Cortec primer to protect the parts against corrosion. Total Time = 9 hrs.

Putting in the final rivet.

7/24/11 - Took time out to attend the Thunder Over Michigan Airshow at Willow Run Airport in the morning. (The Blue Angels are utterly amazing.) I didn't start on the construction until late afternoon. I reattached the rear skin and the nose skin to the skeleton and clecoed in place. I wasn't totally happy with the nose skin fit at the tip rib so I removed it again and retrimmed and filed it down smooth. Then I reattached once again and cleoced in place. Now it was finally time to rivet the nose skin and the rear skin to the skeleton. All riveting was completed with the exception of the spar flange below the nose rib. This area is just clecoed until the spar fairing is put into place at a later time. Total Time = 3 hrs.

Total Rudder Assembly Time = 29 Hours (I hope the Learning Curve is over)



The Finished Product. Yeah!



CH750 Kit - The Beginning



Ron



Me

 On 7/6/11 Ron Gorsline (fellow worker & flying enthusiast) and I made the trek to Zenith Aircraft Co. to pick up our respective airplane kits. Ron is building the Zodiac 650 and I am building the Zenith CH750. We decided to team up and share in the transportation costs so we rented a truck to bring them back in. I was able to get a Demo flight in the CH750 and what a thrill to actually get to fly the finished product. Very easy to fly and maneuver. Looking forward to the day that I will be able to fly my plane. Ron also got a demo flight in the 650. After landing he made the comment to me that he couldn't understand why anyone would want to build a slow airplane. I answered with "So that I can take off and land it in my back yard!"
 

CH750 Demo Plane

Who says you can't get an airplane inside a truck?

 We left Mexico Missouri at 7:30 A.M. Eastern Time on 7/8/11 and arrived at 8:00 P.M. at my house in Belleville, Mi.  After taking about an hour to unload my kit from the truck, Ron left to drive to his house near Lansing, Mi. (I think he didn't get home until around 11:00 P.M.) Wow, what a long day!


Parts Inventory & Organization

The next day I decided to take a quick inventory of parts and started to put some of the smaller pieces that I wouldn't need for a while in the basement. Some of the longer pieces I kept in the garage. I hung brackets on the garage wall to keep the longer pieces up and out of the way. I'm trying to get somewhat organized so that the build process will go easier. We'll see. I plan on attacking this project starting on Saturday, 7/16/11.