Swapping an Elevator Skin
After trying to adjust the skins to eliminate the “banana” curve at the end of the right skin, I discovered other builders had also run into this, and it was because the skin was bent incorrectly. Worse, you can’t really fix this either.
As it turns out, I had another right skin that came with my original kit that I rejected for missing a line of rivet holes for a stiffening channel (it looks like my kit had a Sling 2 skin instead of a Sling 4 skin, since the Sling 2 doesn’t have this stiffening channel). I decided to test fit this skin to see how the end lined up. As luck would have it, this one lines up much better than the replacement skin.
So, I decided to measure where the missing holes needed to be, and simply drilled the original right skin.
With that problem out of the way, I was able to finish clecoing and riveting up the skin. I finished one side and will complete the other side next.
At the moment, I have the elevator temporarily attached to the horizontal stabilizer with some 1/4″ bolts, and I’m using clamps on the ends to keep the elevator horns lined up perfectly while I rivet the skin.
