My first significant mistake occurred today. I attached the left and right elevators 1/8” too close together on the horn. See the first pic.

As I was drilling the holes for the horn attachment, a voice inside my head said “Wait! Don’t attach the horn yet!” I debated with myself and couldn’t figure out what could go wrong. So I proceeded. Now I know. The horn spaces the elevators to match up with the horizontal stabilizer hinges. Oops.

The remedy is to drill out the rivets and use new ribs, two triangular pieces of sheet aluminum bent at right angles at the edges. Rather than order these parts from Sonex, I’ve opted to buys some raw sheet metal from Aircraft Spruce (Amazon for plane builders), and build the parts myself.

The assembly of the elevators took the whole day. It was important that they are level and without twist. In the end they look really good and I was quite proud of my work until I tried them on. :.(

Oops No Twist Elevators Before Rivet Completed Elevators