Ray Olimski, from EAA Chapter 92, came by and inspected everything. He got out the flashlight and peeked into every hole, crevice, etc. He saw all the little things that count as mistakes, such as a smile on a rivet here and there, an uneven shop head, etc. He said it's all part of working with metal and that everything was up to snuff. Nothing major whatsoever. Stamp of approval...the official paperwork was signed, and that was that.
After Ray left, I began fitting the left elevator to the horizontal stab. You need to screw the bearing eye bolts into the elevator spar. This is easy for about 2 turns, and then it gets tough to turn. I had seen people construct PVC pipe-based bearing tools, such as this one. The only PVC I had lying around had a diameter that was too large for the job...but I had some spare plastic tube-based parts lying around from an old plane washer thing. I cut the tubing, then cut a notch in the end (to fit around the rod end). It worked great...here's a picture.
I tightened the rod end bearings to within 13/16" of the spar, according to the plans. I then mounted the left elevator to the HS with some temporary AN3 bolts. Here you can see the elevator perfectly balanced "in trail" with the trim hardware in place (well, still in it's little plastic bag on top of the elevator, but it's all the same...I'll install that stuff later).
