Control horn and tailwheel welding

Build hours: 396

After two evenings and a full Saturday, we have finished the rudder control horn, tailwheel drive on the bottom of the rudder control horn and the tailspring with tailwheel. A 3/16" rod was inserted through the rudder control horn and hinge brackets to align the pivot points. Hopefully the welding will be completed this week and some pictures of the completed and painted brackets will be posted.

Plan note:

1) There is not much clearance above the tailspring for the tailwheel drive at the bottom of the rudder post so plan the tailspring bracket welding carefully or the rudder travel will be limited.

2) The drawing for the tailwheel bracket is so wrong! Could Hummel not make some updates to there website with a few new notes? The arms are not long enough for the 4" tailwheel and do not provide enough clearance for the tailcone so don't waste the metal! We lengthened the arms and added a down angle that provided an additional 1" of tailcone clearance.

Control horns

Build hours: 383

Finished welding the control arms on the elevator control horn and welded the upper and lower post for the rudder control horns.

Elevator control horn

Build hours: 379

We practiced welding tubes to sheet steel for several hours on Saturday. Rick's skill improved more quickly than mine so he became the designated welder. After attempting to twist, tear or bend the welded tubes off of the steel sheet , without success, we were ready to weld the elevator bracket. The bracket parts were aligned on the elevator, tacked and then moved to the workbench for final welding. The bracket required some adjustment due to distortion caused by the welding but it was definitely air-worthy.

More tail feathers...

Build hours: 372
Sorry, I'm just logging the hours so there are no new pictures. Refer to the prior tailcone, rudder and elevator pictures to jog your memory!
The tailcone, elevators and rudder was completed and installed on the other UC.

Rudder 2

Build hours: 363

We're back on the job after a holiday hiatus. The rudder was rebuilt and looks great. A tally of the material cost to date is approx 1K for each UC. The UCs will be swapped again to complete the other control surface installations and then we'll try our hand at gas welding the control horns and tailwheel bracket.