Pietenpol Build. First elevator frame completed.

To construct a single elevator piece (two are required), twenty two spruce parts must be cut, milled, and glued together. That’s 44 custom wood parts for the elevators. And then sanding. Lots of sanding…. No wonder it takes some people ten plus years to finish one of these babies.

It’s finally starting to look like an aircraft part! I used gravity to hold the joints together as T-88 likes minimal clamping pressure. I used tape for clamping pressure around the spars to hold them against the trailing edge.

I have also glued on the 1/8″ backing plates for the hinges.

You may have noticed that there are only gussets on one side of the leading edge. If you are building your own Piet, it is crucial that the hinges are installed before putting the gussets on the other side. Otherwise you will not be able to properly torque the hinge bolts.

 

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