Today I was able to install the Vertical Stabilizer and the rudder. Before I started that task, I spent time filing down the elevator horns stops. That is, the deck angle on the aft end and the deck doubler on the forward end.
The filing was tedious as I was carefully working to get the correct amount of elevator travel. I was able to get the prescribed 25 degrees of down travel, but not the full 30 degrees of up. I’m at 27.5 degrees up, and not comfortable removing any more material from the aft deck angle before hearing back from Vans. From what I can tell, I’ll have to remove a significant amount more to gain the addition 2 degrees. All of the dimensions appear to be correct, so I’m not sure why I’m having an issue.
Update: tech support at Vans concur that it’s not worth any further filing to gain a couple more degrees of up travel. I’m going to leave this as-is.
The VS install is easy, and I’ve done it so many times now, I was able to complete the task quickly. I had to torque the bolt heads on the bottom 3 bolts (vs the nuts) due to no real access for a torque wrench, so I added some additional torque to account for the bolt movement.
I did run into an issue with the rudder, there’s some interference between the forward edge of the rudder counterweight arm and the aft edge of the Vertical Stabilizer fairing. Not sure how I didn’t find that earlier, but I’m hoping some light sanding will resolve the issue.
