May 23, 2021     8-13: HS complete - (1.8 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Finished up all of the skin to rear spar rivets this morning. Horizontal stabilizer is complete. Still need the last couple LP4's and also the inner rib rivets that I honestly forgot about. Will get them all when the extra LP4's arrive.

In preparation of moving on to the tail cone I cleared off everything from my storage racks and reorganized to get the fuselage parts more easily accessible. Moved my workbenches out a little too to give more room to walk on both sides.

Need to buy some saw horses. Hard to find 38” tall ones so I guess I will just make them.

  May 22, 2021     8-13: HS rear spar install - (0.9 hour)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

With the skins all riveted, I proceeded with the installation of the rear spar. It attached mostly with blind rivets but there a few solid rivets that are accessible. Thank god I was able to squeeze them. I need a break from bucking for a while.

Started to install the blind rivets and apparently my pop rivet squeezer is broken. Must have busted while dimpling that rib. Quick run to The Lowe's Aviation aisle and I have a new Arrow brand riveter. It got the job done, but I'm not too happy with it. Taking it back. I think I'll buy a pneumatic one from HF.

I had to drill out a few LP-4 rivets the other day and I turned out two rivets short. I guess you don't get to be the top kit company in the world by throwing in extra pull rivets.

Purchases: Lowe's pop riveter, 3/8 tap and handle, Amazon LP4 rivets, maroon scotch rite pads.

  May 16, 2021     8-13: Skin Riveting - (4.9 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

This is going to be a running entry over several days I think it is going to take all week to get this skin riveted.

5/16: got the bottom right and bottom left skin to forward spar riveted. By the time I finished the right side I feel like I really was doing well on the riveting. Had just a little scuffing from the set and the skin, but no dings. I put a second piece of tape over the flush set and the left side came out flawless. I did notice that I somehow left out a rivet in the forward spar doubler. There is no way to set a new one, but I think I can get a cherrymax blind rivet in there. Ordered one from AIrcraft Spruce. We'll see.

5/17: Got the top right skin to spar done tonight in a brief 40 min bucking session. Tried using clear Mylar tape to hold rivets in place and that also worked really well and improved my efficiency a little.

5/18: finished the left top skin to spar. My cherrymax rivet arrived and I was able to get it squeezed into place. Can now proceed with rib riveting.

5/19: started on top right rib rivets. Ended up with a ding on one. not sure what I did wrong, didn't seem that I slipped.

5/21: finished the top skin and will progress the bottom tomorrow. Still hope to finish the part this weekend. Pretty good on the riveting but realized that even if 99% of my rivets are perfect, I'd still end up with 3 dings on a part this big. Nice IMC weather lately. Going flying approaches in actual with my CFI tomorrow.

5/22: got it all wrapped up today. I noticed that the skin was not sitting tightly on one of the ribs so drilled the rivets out to redo. Discovered the rib had not been dimpled. Oops. Was able to use the tight quarters dimpling die with the pop riveter and get dimples in the rib.

Purchases: ACS cherrymax rivets

  May 16, 2021     8-10 thru 8-13: HS assembly - (2.8 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Assembled inner rib and stringer section and then riveted it all to the forward spar. Had to buck all of the rivets since the squeezer couldn't get around the spar flange. Need one of the longeron yokes for the squeezer at some point.

Dropped the rear spar and rib skeleton into the skins. As I cleco'd the spar in place I realized that I skipped the riveting of two of the forward ribs. That would have been a disaster. Pulled the skeleton back and out and bucked those remaining front rib rivets - some of my best work actually.

Put the skeleton into the skins a second time and double check everything as I cleco'd it in place. Squeezed the -4 rivets from the spar to the front ribs on the ends and installed the blind rivets on the remaining ribs. I messed up though and mistakenly installed blind rivets into the holes for the main ribs, not the forward ribs. My first attempt at drilling out LP4-3 blind rivets. Pretty easy actually, just used one of the discarded mandrels to drive out the rivet and then drilled it out with a 1/8” bit.

Installed the remaining main ribs, squeezing the outboard -4s and then correctly installed the blind rivets in the inboard rib.

Stopped short of starting the skin riveting. That's going to be quite a chore.

  May 15, 2021     8-2, 8-3 & 8-6: Priming and spar assembly - (3.5 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Got through the last session of priming on the HS. Got the long spars and stringers all done. Read about other people getting a rough finish from the air being a little high on the gun. Made me consider the quality of my own finish and decided to turn the gun pressure down to about 20psi. I do feel like the primer went on a little smoother and actually wet out a little instead of drying almost on contact.

Then assembled the rear spar and doubler and riveted the elevator attach brackets. Assembled and riveted the center bearing bracket and installed with the AN3 bolts. Torqued to spec and torque sealed.

Assembled forward spar with caps, doubler and attach brackets. Felt so good to finally have all that fitted together and correct after several set backs. Got the variety of rivets installed per plan. Was able squeeze most but had to buck the ones through the attach brackets because they were just too long.

Installed my retrofit skins strips over the spar flanges and installed the center 9 rivets.

Good day, got a lot accomplished.

  May 12, 2021     8-2: Front spar cap one more time - (1.2 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Third times a charm. I was surprised to see the spar cap arrived a day early. Went ahead with cutting the ends, clamped and match drilled all of the #30 holes through the spar web.

Took an extra step to make sure I was making a top or bottom cap, as I recalled the holes are different. Confirmed this is the bottom spar. Still need to drill the #40s through the flange but a little concerned about running a bit through the already countersink spar flanges. I may use the old, ruined spar to drill these holes. I need to make everything aligns. Will tackle that tomorrow.

5/13: got back out tonight and got the #40s drilled through the flange. Used the old spar to preserve the countersink in the new one. Worked well. Drilled the #12s too. Ready for priming.

  May 11, 2021     8-12: front rib rivets - (1.0 hour)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Skipped ahead a bit while I wait on my spar caps. Finished the last few dimples and put the skins back in the cradles. The inserted and cleco'd the front ribs in place. Everything fit pretty snug and I didn't notice any tendency of the skins to pull away from the ribs that I've read some people having.

Squeezed the rivets for the inboard and out board ribs. Then set up to buck the interior ones. Turned the gun down quite a bit; I think I've been creeping up a little with my settings and had contributed to some of my recent struggles. Down around 30 psi, and turned the needle valve on the gun down a bout half way. Seemed to be plenty enough to set a -3 without the gun bouncing around too much. Didn't do too bad, but I think I will finally break down and by one of the rubber ringed flush sets. Some people swear by them, others say they're not as good. I guess I'll see for myself. I'm not going to make it through this build if I continue to struggle with more than occasional dings in skins.

  May 10, 2021     8-9: Dimpling - (1.8 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

I'm really trying to commit to no scratches on the HS skins. I changed up my dimpling set up to put the male die on top so I'm not dragging the outside of the skin around on the table and over the die. It's much slower because I have to carefully align every hole rather than just popping it onto the male die and squeezing. But the results are worth it. Hardly a scratch in the skin.

Also finally got smart about the squeezer. Holding that 10lb squeezer in my hand for an hour would leave me exhausted and with a sore arm for days. I decided to clamp it to the workbench and just move the piece as I squeezed. Duh. Much better experience. Slowly learning.

Got through all the ribs and almost all the skins. Just the perimeter holes in the skins and I'll get those with the squeezer.

Also talked to Van's today and they shipped my spar cap. They're still backed up over a week on orders. He said the fact that I called meant I must need the part so he processes it today. Should get it before the weekend.

  May 09, 2021     8-8 & 8-9: prelim HS assembly and more priming - (4.3 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Even though I'm not final drilling anything, I went ahead and followed the instructions to assemble everything as if I were going to drill it. At the very least it is a good check for fit and to give an idea of how everything goes together before I have a rivet gun in my hand. Everything went together well and no alignment problems. I spot checked several holes with a -4 rivet to confirm final size and all locations were good.

Then took everything apart and prepped the remaining ribs and skins for priming. Got through all of that, but it was a lot. Glad I broke it into sessions. Just the spars, caps and stringers left to prime and I'll have to wait till I get my new spar cap.

I'll have a lot of dimpling and some assembly to keep me occupied this week.

  May 08, 2021     8-9: HS priming session 1 - (2.5 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Now that I realize I have final size holes, the HS will essentially go straight to dimpling and assembly. I need to prime everything before I even get started and there are a ton of parts. Thought I would knock out a manageable batch of them today.

Typical session. Clean, etch, spray. Got the front ribs, the four interior main ribs and some of the other miscellaneous parts. I'll leave the spars and the skins and remainder of ribs for later. Might be two more batches.

Waiting on the new front spar cap before I can do much actual assembly. Based on my credit card statement, I don't even think Van's has processed the order.

  May 06, 2021     8-5: front spar cap strip - (0.6 hour)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Got the HS skins in the cradles with the spar attached just to get a feel for the size. With the spar cleco'd in place it was a good opportunity to experiment with the thin strips of skin I plan to add to the outside of the spar flanges.

I don't want a gap between the end of the strip and the HS skin, and I also don't want it running long and unsupported. I decided to extend the strip to just stick under the HS skin so the skin will hold the end of the strip in place. The insertion is minimal and I can sand the strip down to a taper to have minimal distortion of the skin.

Cut the strip out of 0.025” scrap, 1/2” wide to match the spar flange width. Had to think a bit about how to match drill it to the spar. I used a 6” bit and drilled through the spar from the back side. Worked great.

Once these are dimpled, they will sit perfectly on the spar and probably won't even notice they're there.

  May 03, 2021     8-5: Another Countersink issue - (0.1 hour) Category: 8: Horiz Stab

I realized that I made another potential mistake with the countersinking. The 9 holes in the center of the front spar do not have skin over them so they really should have been countersink flush to the spar flange. Typical practice to accommodate a dimpled skin is to set the countersink .007” below flush. Of course my cage was set that way and the resulting rivet heads sit below the surface of the spar flange.

This would be merely an aesthetic annoyance, except I can't squeeze them tight down in the recessed hole, the rivet will essentially sit proud in the hole and not make a strong joint.

I considers oversizing the rivets but there is not adequate edge distance for a -4. My other idea was to go ahead and put a narrow strip of 0.025” dimpled “skin” on top of the spar.

I talked to Van's and they agreed that would be acceptable.

  May 02, 2021     8-5: Countersinking spars - (3.5 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Plans call for the middle nine holes on the front spar to be countersunk. Eventually all of the holes in the spar flanges have to be countersunk to receive the dimpled skins, but the plans are still written for that step to happen after the skins are final drilled to the spars. I read ahead a little to confirm, but since my holes are already final sized there should be no reason to not go ahead and countersink all the holes. So I set up for a long session of countersinking all the HS parts - both spars and the HS1014 and HS1015 stringers.

I had to rearrange the shop a bit so that I could use the drill press and fit the spars in the garage. So much easier to use drill press than the hand drill.

Got through the several hundred holes in a few hours. But I did have a screw up. I grabbed what I thought was one of the stringers and started countersinking. When I got to the end, I realized it was a spar cap and not the stringer. Crap, I just ruined another spar cap!

Purchases: Van's HS-1013

  May 01, 2021     8-5: HS Front spar caught up - (1.5 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Well, that wasn't bad at all. I guess it's always faster the second time. Got the front spar caps all re-drilled, and I'm official caught up to where I was when I messed up the first spar.

  Apr 15, 2021     8-2: Redo front spar caps - (0.6 hour)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Don't have room to do much in the shop at the moment but did pull out the new HS-1013 front spar caps and fabricated them per plan. Deburred and set aside until I have room to do the spar.

These did come out much better than the first ones too. I've learned to just use the thin wood blade on the band saw. It cuts aluminum just fine and much straighter.

In other good news, I've been reading on some forums about parts being highlighted if they are NOT drilled final sized. I thought it was the final sized parts that were highlighted and I didn't have any that were highlighted so I thought all of mine needed to be drilled. I think I must have read that backwards on the flyer that came with the kit. I confirmed that all of my holes are indeed final sized. That will save me a step going forward.

  Mar 28, 2021     8-5: front HS spar - big mistake! - (2.5 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

The replacement angle for the HS-1008 spar attach brackets came in. I got to re-fabricating those and they came out well this time.

Then cleco'd the front spar doubler to the spar and clamped the attach brackets to an angle to keep them square, then match drilled them to the doubler no problem. Then cleco'd the spar doubler to the spar and that is where my screw up began.

Actually my screw up started when I was drilling the spar caps and labeled them top and bottom. My cursory review of the spar itself didn't seem to have a top or bottom. Looked symmetrical like the rear spar so I arbitrarily label one side as up. I missed that the spar is predrilled for the spar attach bracket.

When I then cleco'd the doubler, which obviously has a top and bottom, not all of the holes were there. At this point the doubler is covering up the spar so I can't see the obvious mistake and that there are holes in the spar that should align. Oh well, I proceeded to drill the apparently missing holes through both the spar and the spar caps. Only once I was completely done and removed the clecos that I saw my problem. Not only did I put a lot of unnecessary holes in the spar, the new holes are way too close to several of the existing holes. I'm pretty sure it's ruined.

I feel so stupid. I wasn't rushing, I was taking my time, double checking the plans at every step. I even paused when it looked like a couple of holes in the spar didn't perfectly align with the doubler, but I wrote it off as just CNC misalignment - I should have known better. Many opportunities to catch the error, I just didn't. Then even when I saw that the holes were misaligned, I thought this has to be a problem with Van's. No. I need to trust that Van's is correct and stop until I figure it out.

I'll order a new forward spar and caps and start over. It sucks, I had put a lot of work into those spar caps. The parts are probably not that expensive, but shipping an 11' long spar is not going to be cheap.

3/29 Update - talked to Van's, they're sending me a new spar because of the corrosion issue. I get a mulligan on this one.

Purchases: Van's replacement spar caps, proseal

  Mar 28, 2021     8-7: Cradles - (1.5 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Cut the cradles for the HS from some scrap 1/2” ply and a 2x4. Wrapped it in masking tape then decided that wasn't enough and went back over it with gorilla tape.

  Mar 27, 2021     8-2 & 8-5: HS spar work - (3.1 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Trying to get both spars to the point of priming so I can do them at the same time. Put in a good day today but not quite there.

Rear spar was pretty easy. Just some match drilling of elevator brackets and some counter sinking. The front spar is a bear though. A lot of drilling for the spar caps. I know I'm going to have to come back and counter sink all of those holes too. It's just like the vertical stab spar, only twice as long.

The majority of the time today was just on one step. Parts are getting larger, steps are taking longer.

  Mar 23, 2021     8-4, 8-6 & 8-7: HS spar caps, stringers and ribs - (2.3 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

More deburring and a little bit of fabrication of HS parts. Nothing too glamorous, didn't even have my little partner tonight.

Cut the HS spar caps and stringers per plans and then sanded smooth and deburred. Came out pretty good, but it certainly does take some coaxing to get my band saw to cut a straight line.

Got the remainder of the ribs deburred and put the 9 degree bends on the inner two. Just clamped the nose of the rib to the workbench and bent it by hand. Eyeballed it. I don't think it needs to be super precise, the skin rivets will take care of the final alignment.

Got the other spar doubler deburred too, so now all of the HS parts are deburred and ready for assembly when I get my main workbench back. Still has the Rudder proseal curing on it. Should be ready tomorrow.

Good night in the shop. And I get to flying with my CFI in the morning - gotta stay proficient during the build.

  Mar 22, 2021     8-7: HS deburring - (1.0 hour)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Can't do much with workbench still occupied by the rudder so I'm skipping ahead and having a little after dinner deburring session with my building partner.

I did come across a change in the parts that is not reflected in the plans. Plans show cutting a hole in the forward ribs for the elevator trim cables, but the parts supplied by Van's already have lightening holes in them. Not sure if they will be adequate for the trim cables though.

  Mar 21, 2021     8-2: HS spar corrosion - (1.5 hours) Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Haven't heard back from Van's but tech counselor confirmed the best course of action was just to sand out all the surface corrosion and prime it. Got most of it out with 400 grit sand paper and the some 3m pad. Set it aside for now. I will scuff it good again before priming.

3/29 update: spoke to a Van's rep. He was confused by it as well. He said they would just send me new parts. I told him it was really just the forward spar that was bad so they are sending a new HS-1002.

  Mar 15, 2021     8-2: HS spar deburr - (1.0 hour)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Decided I couldn't do any harm to just deburr the rear HS spar and doubler. That sucker is long.

When removing the blueing, I noticed my hands a bit sticky and then I could see some fluid on the surface of the vinyl. It almost felt oily, but then was definitely a little sticky. When I pulled the blueing off there were areas where it had run underneath and had eaten into the alclad. I think was able to mostly scuff it out and since I'm priming anyways it is probably not a problem. I'll send a picture to Van's.

  Mar 15, 2021     8-3: HS front spar attach brackets - FAIL - (1.5 hours)       Category: 8: Horiz Stab

Can't get anything else done on the rudder so thought I would skip ahead and fabricate some parts for the HS. The front spar attach brackets are cut from a pretty thick aluminum angle stock. One side is angled so I cut them on the band saw and then sanded the angle on the disc sander. They get pretty hot so I was actually stopping to throw them in the freezer occasionally.

I had the right one looking pretty good and while the left one was cooling I started to measure the holes to be drilled. Well, I figured out very quickly that I had cut them too short. They're clearly shown as 2 3/8” tall but I read 2” and cut them both.

No salvaging that. Ordered a new piece of stock from Van's. I could probably source it locally but for $6 I'll just get it from them. Probably $10 to ship though. My first completely ruined part. I guess I got off pretty cheap.

Purchases: Van's replacement HS attach brackets