I managed to use all solid rivets on the bottom of the trim tab, except for one blind rivet each at the aft ends of the E-717 and E-718 control horn halves. It would have been perfectly okay to use blind rivets all the way across, and plenty of people have done it that way, but I am feeling triumphant today because I succeeded in finding a way to squeeze all the spar rivets and almost all the control horn rivets.
Here the forward half of the trim tab hinge has been drilled, after lining up the trim tab carefully with the elevator:
Here's how I secured the end of the hinge pin – a hinge eye affixed to the trim tab spar via a nutplate. Can't take credit for this neat idea since I read it somewhere else first.
Here's the finished trim tab, completely installed. Look at those solid rivets in the spar… mmm, solid rivets…
