Stjohn's RV-7

1 hour.
I got home from work yesterday and my replacement VA-101 had arrived in the mail, so I decided to sort out the aft push tube and see if I couldn’t rig the elevators. Long story short, my theory was correct, and I was able to get more thread on the forward pushrod’s end bearings, but something was still kind of weird. I still could only move the elevator to one stop or the other, but not both. Adjusted for maximum clearance in full forward stick, the rod end bearing would bind on the control column when pulled all the way aft. When adjusted the other way, the control column would contact the insides of the lightening holes in the ribs before the elevators hit the stop. It didn’t really matter how much adjustment I did, one of those two situations would always occur. If you look at the seat ribs in the area of the control column, you can see there’s a definite cutout for the arc of the control column. I mentioned before that the control column’s fit sucked, most likely due to warpage during the welding process, or badly formed parts. I suspect this is also responsible for the few thousandths of aluminum making the stick rub on the ribs. This was compounded by the fact that the two center ribs, the ones wich have the access notches cut out, didn’t have all the metal removed that was supposed to be removed. Long story short, I was able to take off a couple thousanths of an inch from the lightening holes and the access notches to allow the column to move freely through its whole range. I have plenty of thread inside the rod end bearings, and the elevator now moves all the way to both stops unhindered. Just for kicks, I got the panel and subpanel assembly out of the loft and clecoed it into place on the fuselage. The stick doesn’t hit it and there will still be plenty of room once I install whatever stick grip I eventually choose.
And the best part? I sat in the hull, moved the stick back and forth, and watched the elevators go up and down in the reflection in the sliding glass door.