Grumman TBM/TBF Avenger Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
building tail details

Grumman´s engineers were very clever when they created the Avenger.
The horizontal stabilizer has a symetrical airfoil.
Port side is identical to starboard side.
To get a perfect fit I filled the stabilizer with epoxy against the fuselage.

Aftrer drying I sandet it and it fit well. You would not even get a
stamp between it and the fin!

I made the hinges for the horizontal stabilizer from 3mm epoxid board.
I constructed them in CAD, printed them, put the printing to the board
and cut them with the jigsaw. I inserted brass bearings for smooth working elevators.

First test from stabilizer and elevator.It looks good.
As well as in the flaps a 2mm steal filament connects both which is easily
to draw off. But there are some more details to support...

The big elevator hinge inside the fin inspired me to use a special construction.
I span a 16mm aluminium pole into my turning lathe and began milling ...

I made it square in the milling machine and the seesaw was born.
It will control the elevator, drawn by steel rope that is normally used by fishermen
for heavy fish from up to 40 pounds. But for what purpose is the whole in the front?

I created wooden boxes for the axis to glue them into the elevators .
Then I fixed bearings from a kind of nylon plastic (sorry, I don´t know the correct
terminus in english) into the fin.

This is my secret why no one can see the filament from the elevator hinge ...
Ooops I did´nt want to betray it to anybody but now it is spoken out !

 

     
Stay tuned - next time I´ll show you how I made the fin
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date 05/2010