Since I’m going to have around 6-8 weeks of down time before my fuselage is ordered I decided to comply with a service bulletin that Van’s out out. There were 2 new bulletins, 1 for the horizontal spar and 1 for the elevator rod end attachment. I’m going to do the spar bulletin and not the other. My training for not doing the other is it is more for already flying aircraft and was caused, from many sources, to be from the jam nut on the rod end not being tight. That nut transfers the loads and forces from the elevator rio end to the elevator spar. If the nut is loose it can cause the load to be applied to the wrong area causing a crack. These nuts will be on my preflight inspection on flights and I’m not concerned about them. On the other bulletin they have found cracks in the HS spar at a transition area from normal wear in flight. Many haven’t found cracks and only need to do the bulletin if cracks are found. I figured that I have the empennage in pieces now and can do it with a little less work compared to a built aircraft. This is not an easy bulletin to comply with once off the airplane as it has you partially disassemble the HS and drilling 470 type rivets is a pain in the best scenario. I will have plenty of time to complete it and no need to rush. The parts are only $15 from Van’s and will be here by the weekend I’m guessing. He is a link to the service bulletin.
