Fixing tear in Elevator Leading Edge

Tonight I was starting to roll the leading edges of my -10 elevators.
I used Eric's method documented here for my rudder, and thought it worked really well.

I had a ratchet in the end of the bar closest to the tip rib, which in hindsight wasn't a good idea.

As I rolled the leading edge, the corner of the skin bent backwards (away from the spar) and tore before I had realized it.

This is the result:


Clearly, I need to stop drill this. What else should I do to fix this?
I was thinking that I should create a small rectangular piece of similar thickness of the skin and put it on the inside of this skin riveting around the edges of the piece.

Other thoughts?

This is one where you can make a suitable repair but it will never look as good as it could - like just trimming off the end and add another rivet to replace the one cut out.

The "like it never happened" option is to buy a new skin. That way you will not spend years looking at this flaw and regreting it. The great thing about these kits is replacement parts are relatively cheap.

Carl

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe you won't be able to see this once it is on the airplane. If so, I would consider stop drilling, cleaning up the edges, and backing with a patch. If this is the side that lays under the other skin, you can patch with flush rivets before you rivet the assembly. If is the side that is on top, that is a bit tricker. It may or may not show depending on how large the patch needs to be to still meet edge distances.

Another option would be to stop drill, clean it up, and then use an appropriate industrial adhesive as you rivet in assembly.

I would hate to see you trash an almost complete elevator to build again, but like Carl says, parts are cheap and the empennage is where we practice our skills.

Since i imagine you can make it perfectly airworthy why not build on, and decide once the plane is finished or close to it whether you want to rebuild it or not. Most likely you won't notice it and just want to get in the air. Or, if it still bothers you you will have the skills to put together a nice new one relatively quickly.

Chris

Build On

YellowJacket RV9 said:

Since i imagine you can make it perfectly airworthy why not build on, and decide once the plane is finished or close to it whether you want to rebuild it or not. Most likely you won't notice it and just want to get in the air. Or, if it still bothers you you will have the skills to put together a nice new one relatively quickly.

Chris

Click to expand...

Yes, I think I will build on rather than take a bunch of it apart at this stage. It is on the bottom skin. Especially seeing I just spent a bunch of time redoing some things on the VS and Rudder.

Vans suggested to do this to both the top and bottom skins to make it look uniform. Basically what Carl had suggested as an option above.

Perfect. Good job Carl.
You will never see it. Build on!

I suggest that you make the repair, drive-on, and build a new elevator once the plane is flying. So long as the part is airworthy - use it! You can rebuild a whole new (and better) empennage someday if cosmetics are that important to you.

Good luck!