Nothing too crazy on this cold Friday evening. I decided to test fit all of the primed interior parts back into the skin just for my own sanity to make sure everything fits. The build instructions at this point have you install whichever trim system components that you have. In my case, when I bought this empennage kit along with all the tools 4 years ago now (yikes!) the whole package came with a few other components that the original person had purchased. This included the electric elevator trim kit from the Ray Allen Company. I had no input on this purchase, it just came with everything and I'm fine with it. I like to fly with manual trim in smaller aircraft as you can fine tune it very quickly. Electric trim systems can be clunky and not nearly as precise IMO but the benefit of not having to rig another control cable is also attractive and being able to have the trim switch as part of the stick grip is also a big plus so electric trim it shall be!

Here's really the first time in the build where Van's lets you go it alone. They have some construction drawings for either version of the trim as part of the larger construction drawing for the left elevator and that's it. There are no written instructions for the installation of these parts. So kids, we're on our own on this one. Not too challenging, just need to be double sure of measurements and fit before drilling. The electric trim kit consists of the trim servo, related hardware, nutplates and Z brackets to support the servo. All of this will fit into the small trim cutout on the lower side of the left elevator inner section.

So lacking instructions I spent some time this evening coming up with a plan of attack and actually writing out my own instructions. The nutplates will need their holes countersunk which I will need to do and then rivet on those nutplates. The attach holes for the trim cutout cover will also need to be dimpled and countersunk for fitment. I also spent some time this evening looking over other builder's logs on this set of parts. Since there's no instructions for this from Vans, Google is your friend and yielded some good results. After a review of a few different builder logs I have pretty good idea of how to tackle this little part of the build and wrote my own instructions accordingly.

Time to put the plans into action!