Panther Sport Aircraft Forums

Dan,

I thought that would be the fix, but I wanted to make sure. I'll gently bend the joiner arms to match the ribs. It should only be 1.5 degrees per side.

Thanks,
Glen

Glen
I cant tell exactly what the issue is. It is fine to gently bend the joiner arms outboard to mate with ribs.
Dan

The clamps have no effect on the gaps. I only lightly clamped the joiner control arms in place, because I needed a free hand to take the picture. There is no play in the joiner control arms when they are assembled. The clamps only hold the assembly in place, as the front of the assembly bottoms out on the front of the inner ribs which leaves the 1/8" gaps at the rear. It appears the 30 degree angle formed by the ribs, is not a match for the 27 degree angle formed by the assembled joiner control arms.

Glen

Glen,
Try releasing the clamps that are holding the joiners to the rear spar. That may be causing part of the problem.

Let me know.

Paul

Paul,
I'm looking forward to the rigging manual part 1. I test fit my elevators to the horizontal stabilizer, and had no problems. I then test fit the assembled joiner control arms (no holes drilled yet), and noticed about a 1/8" gap on each trailing edge. I can't just push the control arms together to close the gap, because everything is pretty sturdy. I measured the inner rib angle, and it's 30 degrees. I measured the angle of the assembled joiner control arms, and it's about 27 degrees. It doesn't seem like much of an angle, but it sure makes a pretty big gap at the ends. I'm wondering if I'm supposed to bend out a 1.5 degree angle on each flange of the control arms, or is there another way to remove these gaps?

Glen

And should you choose to put the tips on before fitting the elevators like I did, this is where to start:

https://picasaweb.google.com/tonyboytoo ... 3682043186

Tony

Rigging manual part 1 which covers everything related to the elevator is nearing completion. I am on the road currently, but will be hopefully finishing it up in the hotel. With any luck, I should finish this week.

As Tony mentioned, the horizontal stabilizer is removed, flipped upside down and a long straight edge is placed across both elevators to assure alignment. Then a spacer is clamped between the arms and the hole is drilled into the other arm. We did not drill any temporary holes in the arms.

It is also recommended to leave all the fiberglass tips off until nearing completion. Part of the reason is to save damage, but the main reason is the only way to find the neutral position of any surface is the aligning the tooling holes that is on the end ribs.

Using the fiberglass tips as the neutral point is not a guarantee they will be centered properly.

Tony,
I think I understand now. You drilled the #40 hole in the Joiner control arms just to hold the alignment. You then took the elevators off the horizontal stabilizer, so you could drill the hole between the Joiner control arms (where the push rod will attach).

Glen

Tony,
If no permanent fastner is attached to the drilled #40 holes, then why are they drilled?

Glen

Glen,

There's no permanent fastener that goes where the #40 drill goes thru both shafts. The elevators are joined only by the rod end that ties them together at the bottom end of the horns. Photo of left elevator only with rod end and pushrod here: https://picasaweb.google.com/tonyboytoo ... 9693818482 Note that one horn is provided without a hole for rod end. Drilling the second hole in the horn is your only chance to be sure elevators (not horns) are aligned with each other: https://picasaweb.google.com/tonyboytoo ... 3610130386 Best to keep asking questions until you're clear as to what and why.

Tony