Not a lot of time to work on the plane today, but I was able to knock out a few things. Riveted the fwd shim and attach angle to the fwd v/s spar. The first couple of pictures below show the shim upper edge flush with the flange that sticks down from the v/s nose rib. flange and rib are both .032 so it worked out okay to allow the attach angle to over lap the flange by about 1/16" Since everything is nice and flat, the only concern I can see here is would be if any of the rivets ended up too close together, but I measured before I started riveting and determined that I have plenty of pitch on them. Re-installed the vertical stab, snugged down all bolts and was gratified to measure everything still plumb and true. I measured the aft upper corner of the V/S to the tips of the H/S and the measurements vary between "perfect" and off by about 1/64" depending on where exactly I hooked the end of the tape measure and which rivet or edge on the H/S I measured to. That's easily within the possible error of how I'm hooking the end of my tape measure against the tip of the tail so I'm pretty happy with that. Re-installed the elevators with rig pins and then discovered that it's pretty much impossible to fish washers into the gap between the center bearing and the elevator control horns because you can't see or fit a pair of forceps in there due to the V/S aft spar now being in the way. I know the stackup of washers required since I had this together before, so stacked them up on an old AN4 bolt to center them with each other then glued them together with a drop of superglue. I now have two "bushings" instead of 6 washers to deal with. I believe I can fish these two stacks into place with a pair of needle nose pliers but will come back to this tomorrow. I also fabricated the F-789 pushrod. I had cut the tube to length and primed inside and out a few days ago, so all I had to do was smooth out the primer on the interior ends of the tube, insert the ends, drill with my drill press and a V block, and attach with 6 blind rivets on each end per print. On VAF that lots of people have complained that this pushrod is almost impossible to install due to the second bulkhead behind the baggage compartment being in the way of sliding it straight in from the aft side. People have resorted to all sorts of stuff to get it where it belongs; bending it like a bow and hoping it springs back straight, making it shorter by not riveting on the ends until it's in place, etc. Turns out you don't have to do any of that stuff. I can't take credit for this because I saw it in online somewhere, but I've captured the process below so hopefully it might help somebody else who's struggling with this on down the line; Basically, instead of obsessing about getting it past the 2nd back bulkhead and getting a straight shot into the tunnel from the aft side, you start with the fwd end in the tunnel aft of the flap actuator assembly and with the rod on the right side of the F-728 vertical assembly. Then slide it forward until the aft end can be lowered into the tunnel, then slide it aft into position. Easy!