Over the New Year’s holiday I managed to wrap up the horizontal stabilizer. Lots of rivets in there. But small compared to the wings I imagine. There’s about 1000 or so rivets in the skins alone. I am noticing that I am improving a great deal in my rivet shooting technique. Somewhere along the line you realize that they turn out better if you let the gun and the bucking bar do the work. I fight my urge to try and “push” hard on both sides.

I did the skins one side at a time. It varied the bucking task a bit so things were a little more interesting. It took about 3 hours a side to complete the skins. Longer than I expected, but then again I took my time. I think I had to drill one out and have my first “smilie” in one spot. All in all, I think they turned out ok though.

There are a few rivets for the inbound ribs that are a little tough to shoot with the 2X gun. This is one of the spots where a 3X would have done the job better. Just a lot of pressure and hit them for a long time before they finally set. After this step I went over the inboard section with a light coat of primer to cover everything up.

Here’s a reference picture so you can see the size of the horizontal. It’s about 11 feet 2 inches long. It’s now time to move on to the elevators and trim tabs. After that it’s the tail cone. I want to try and get my slow build wing kit ordered in May so that I can have the brother come out and help with them this summer.

Happy New Year.

Total Hours on Horizontal Stabilizer: 39 Total Hours To Date: 78.5

In the past couple of nights I have match drilled, tore everything down, deburred, dimpled, countersunk and primed all the necessary parts. Man, deburring, dimpling, and countersinking all the holes takes a while. Of course it’s probably nothing compared to what the slow-build wings will be like.

I managed to ding up one of the skins also. The skin slipped just as I was on the down swing with the dead blow hammer dimpling the skins in the c-frame. I now have an extra hole right next to one of the “supposed to be there” holes. It’s on the under side, so I’m just going to have the paint guys fix it when it comes time to paint or I’m just going to put a pop rivet in it. I’m not going to sweat it and order a new skin and have to repeat the process when it’s on the under side. If it was on the top side I might just re-order, but not for this which will never be seen.

This one page on the plans took about 12 man hours to complete. Whew! The forearms, back and legs were getting a little tired at times. Where was the brother and dad during this step, huh? They left just before the REAL work began. Nice timing. I’ll make sure and save these steps when the wings arrive.

I also ordered 100 more silver clecos and a second cleco pliers so when the brother comes out next summer to help on the wings I’ll be prepared with enough tools for 4 hands instead of two.

Over the Christmas holiday the family was visiting for a few days. They were able to see most of what goes on in my garage lately. My Dad and brother helped me make some real good progress on the horizontal stabilizer. Some things go a lot faster with an extra set of hands. And some things go even faster when one person is working on a section while two others are working on a different section. For example, my brother and I worked on the rear spar assembly while my Dad fabricated the attachment brackets. This saved quite a bit of time.

We were able to get the nose ribs, front spar, and inboard ribs clecoed to the skins in the cradles. Dad made the cradles while we were riveting the rear spar doubler and attachment brackets. Another time saver. Oh, and Dad did most of the deburring on the ribs early in the morning while the rest of us were still sleeping. Another job that I was grateful for and it saved yet more time.

I can tell I’m going to need more silver clecos before I get to the tail cone. I also need to get a second cleco pliers. It would have really helped when two people are match drilling.

Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for the help.

This morning I was able to complete the rudder. The other night I finished double-flush riveting the trailing edge and rolled the leading edges. I can say that I don’t like doing the double-flush and rolling the edges. Of all the things I’ve done so far, these two tasks were the least enjoyable. Both came out fine, not perfect, but good enough. I had the most trouble rolling the middle of the three leading edges. Just didn’t want to come together. I am also going to go back and hit the tailing edge rivets again as I can see a few spots where the shop side isn’t sitting in the dimples far enough.

I mounted the rudder on the vertical stabilizer for a test fit. It swings pretty good. Finally looking like I’m accomplishing something. Now on to the Horizontal stabilizer. I think I’ll wait to start that until the family gets out here for Christmas so they can get a taste of what it’s like to go through the steps from square one on a sub-kit.

Total Hours on Rudder: 22 Total Hours on Vertical Stabilizer: 17.5 Total Hours To Date: 39.5

Over the last couple of days I managed to get a few things done with the rudder. With the priming fiasco out of the way, the stiffeners were back-riveted to the skins. Back-riveting is the bomb compared to shooting the rivets. I’m going to try and do as much back-riveting as possible, as most builders do I guess. It just looks so much cleaner.

Also finished prosealing the trailing edge. This was not as bad as I thought it would be. Makes me feel a little more comfortable about doing the fuel tanks even though I know that is a little more involved. I plan on using the method outlined on Tim’s site. As you can see I have everything but the kitchen sink thrown on top of the trailing edge to weight it down against the workbench. Hopefully that will keep it mostly straight.

Today I primed the rudder skeleton in preparation for final riveting. I finally got a chance to use my recently purchased mini-HVLP sprayer. All I can say is that I WILL NOT ever be using it again. It is a big mess. Cleanup afterwards is a royal pain in the #$?! I will be sticking to the rattle can version of the primer I use. I compared the amount of primer used from the quart I bought and it took almost as much as what it takes with the rattle can. So, the cost of the rattle can version is about the same in the end and it is a joy to work with. No messy cleanup, when you’re done, that’s it. I will be heading out to buy a case of the stuff soon so I don’t have to deal with that damn sprayer any more.

On we go…

Tonight I was counter-sinking the AEX training edge of the rudder and I ran across what I thought was an issue. Both sides of the trailing edge get counter-sunk to receive the dimples in the skins. When I started counter-sinking the 2nd side I noticed that it was opening up the hole because of the thin material and the depth needed to fit the skin dimples. I called Van’s and they said that was normal and expected. Whew!

Today I took a personal day off work and was able to get the rudder skeleton done and get everything put together. Of course I jinxed myself on the previous post and messed up a rudder strike plate. I forgot to check my micro-stop countersink depth before I dug in. Yup, way too deep. Oh well, called Van’s and ordered the part which was a whopping $3.50. I doubted I was going to make it through the entire kit without a re-order anyways. Anyhow, continued on as the strike plates aren’t needed again until final riveting. You can see every hole clecoed in the trailing edge to keep it straight while match drilling.

Also, today I stopped by Andrew’s place to look at his project and give him a hand riveting his tailcone. He is back-riveting the skins on the tailcone instead of bucking them. It takes a bit more time, but it REALLY looks great. He’s only a couple miles away from my place and is a few sub-kits ahead of me, which is better for me than him. HeHe.

Progress on the rudder has now started. Spent my lunch hour today on the first few steps. The ribs were separated and deburred. The shear clips were also separated and deburred and likewise for the stiffeners. Everything went smoothly. No parts to re-order (knock on wood).

After priming the skeleton, I was able to set my first rivets. It is a little nerve racking doing your first. You’re trying to be perfect. In the end it’s no big deal. Even if you mess up a few, it’s easy to drill them out and set a new one. Got the skeleton all riveted together (except for the portions called out for access to the skin rivets) and put the skin back on for final assembly.

It was a TON of fun riveting the skin on. I enjoyed this process the most so far. It starts to give you a sense of completion. It took a little longer than I expected, but everything went as planned. I think I only had to drill out one bad rivet (at least that I know of!).

The Vertical Stabilizer is now complete except for fairings which will come later in the process. One down, ??? to go. And yes, I was in my socks while finishing up the skin.