Dec 29, 2021     Elevator - (2.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Mounted the elevators on the horizontal stabilizer. The left elevator is weight neutral and the right is forward heavy. I need to adjust a couple of bearings and recheck the balance. Together they are about right.

  Dec 28, 2021     Empennage work - (3.0 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished several tasks including:

1. Finished installation of trim tab and electric trim motor. Made initial pitch trim adjustments .
2. Made a drill bushing for drill elevators to the bearing mounted on the horizontal stabilizer. Elevators are ready for initial mounting.

  Dec 22, 2021     Horizontal stabilizer riveting - (2.0 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished riveting the center section of the horizontal stabilizer main spars including riveting the inside the inner ribs HS-404 & HS-405

  Dec 20, 2021     Horizontal stabilizer - (2.0 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finally got back to riveting the HS. I'm running a bit behind my self imposed schedule but I'll catch up.

  Dec 15, 2021     Left elevator trim tab - (2.0 hours)       Category: Empennage

The previous builder got the trim motor installation a little out of sequence. There are seven anchor nuts that hold the motor inside the elevator. Those are normally riveted in place before the doubler is riveted inside the elevator. I could have drilled out a bunch of rivets and disassembled the elevator but just wasn't in the mood. So working in a small space I managed to get them installed but I doubt I saved any time. Next is fixing the trim tab hinge. As you can see there very little distance between the rivet holes and the edge of the hinge material. I have some wider hinge material so I will replace it.

  Dec 14, 2021     Rudder finished - (2.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished the rudder. Riveted the trailing edge, formed and riveted the leading edge. Installed the bearings with the jam nuts.

Pulled out the left elevator for detailed cleaning and inspection. The trim tab is not finished and the trim motor needs to be installed. The right elevator needs cleaning but is otherwise finished.

  Dec 13, 2021     Rudder work - (2.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished riveting the rudder skins with the exception of the trailing edge. I'm waiting for the sealant in the trailing edge to set up. I'll rivet it tomorrow.

  Dec 10, 2021     Rudder work - (2.0 hours)       Category: Empennage

Drilled all remaining skins and rivet holes to size. Disassembled for deburring, dimpling and final priming.

  Dec 05, 2021     Rudder - (2.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

I picked the new skin Friday and today I moved forward with completing the rudder.

1. Yesterday I finished priming the rudder ribs

2. Riveted the ribs to the skin

3. Clecoed the skins to the rudder structure.

Next is drilling the skin to the structure, dimpling, deburring and the riveting the skin in place.

  Dec 04, 2021     Rudder - (2.0 hours) Category: Empennage

I picked up the new rudder skin from Vans Aircraft yesterday. Today I trimmed, shaped, drilled, dimpled, deburred and primed the ribs that are riveted to the two skins. I also drilled, dimpled and deburred the two skins. Primer will dry overnight and I will rivet the ribs in place.

  Nov 23, 2021     Rudder structure - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Without the rudder skin to work on I started the rudder structure. It's at a point of clecoing the skin on to drill to size. As soon as I get the replacement skin I can finish this up.

  Nov 21, 2021     Rudder - (3.0 hours)       Category: Empennage

Still waiting for the parts for the horizontal stabilizer to finish the service bulletin so I moved on to the rudder.

Pulled the skins out to clean and prep and I ran into the first really bad corrosion. I thought about trying to save it but the skin is 0.016. Not enough material to try any cleaning. At $43.65 to replace it it wasn't worth my time either.

The second skin was fine. I started cleaning it up and the blue film seemed like it was welded on. It took an hour to slowly heat, pull and repeat to get it off. I got the ribs initially trimmed and clecoed in place.

  Nov 20, 2021     HS rebuild continues - (4. hours)       Category: Empennage

The HS rebuild continues, taking a bit longer than I anticipated. Today was awash with errands and other chores so I only managed about four hours over the course of the day. The right HS skin is completely riveted to the substructure except for those areas affected by the service bulletin and the aft spar.

I am waiting for the two spar stiffeners to arrive from Vans. The previous owner had ordered the SB kit but somehow ended up with the version for the RV-8. So as soon as the new parts arrive this will be completed.

  Nov 19, 2021     Horizontal stab skin - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

After the primer dried I started riveting right horizontal stab skin and substructure. I am now at the point where I can apply the service bulletin changes.

  Nov 18, 2021     Horizontal stabilizer rebuild - (6.0 hours)       Category: Empennage

Rebuilding horizontal stabilizer continues. I found jumping between the old plans, new plans and the service bulletin was getting confusing. So I decided to take a different approach. I am going to finish rebuilding the HS as if I was building it from the old plans. I will get it ready to close up and rivet, then remove those components that need to be modified for the service bulletin. That is primarily HS-405 ribs and the HS-702 spars. After completing the service bulletin I can close everything up and finish riveting. This will allow me to focus on completing the HS and not skip or miss any steps. So to that end here are the tasks completed today:

1. The HS-404 rib flanges that are riveted to the forward spar had some significantly oversized holes. It made sense to fabricate new flanges for the ribs, something I ran by Vans technical support. They did not have a problem with the plan so I moved ahead. Understand these ribs are there for support of the stressed skin horizontal stabilizer. The flight loads are handled by the beefy aft spar not by these small ribs. This was definitely a case of NOT adding the value of my time to the equation. Two new ribs would have been $20.00, it took a couple of hours to design, fabricate, test fit, drill, dimple, prime and rivet two flanges. Oh well, they are done now.

2. There are four flush rivets on the spars so there was dimpling and some countersinking completed of HS-702, HS-710 & HS-714.

3. I clecoed all the ribs in place and then clecoed the new right skin in place. The new HS-702 spar and the new skin were pre-punched (there were about thirty rivet locations that were not prepunched on the spar. I match drilled the skin to the existing structure being careful to not make the holes in the existing ribs oversized. I drilled those 30 rivet locations in the spar using the skin for match drilling. I match drilled the HS-404 & HS-405 to the spars.

4. After checking the structure to make sure I did not miss any locations I removed the skin and spar for deburring and dimpling.

5. Dimpling went fairly quickly, so the skin and the spar are ready to be prepped for limited primer. But alas I am out of primer so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

This portion of the project has moved ahead fairly quickly. Again I have not found any corrosion on the older components. Certainly by the weekend (it is Thursday evening) this some be closed up, riveted and in storage. Probably move to the elevators next as they are almost complete and then the rudder.

  Nov 17, 2021     Rebuilding the HS - (3.5 hours)       Category: Empennage

After a trip to Vans Aircraft for parts I started rebuilding the HS. The first step was cutting the radius in the new HS spar and shaping the new components for the HS center section. The tail was originally made in 2002 and the new parts made in 2021 fit if they were all made together. After jumping back and forth from old plans to new plans to the service bulletin I have decided to complete the HS up to the point of riveting as if it was a repair (which it is.). Then before riveting it together I will make the necessary changes as directed in the service bulletin. This service bulletin addresses the potential for cracks in the HS spar. That will make it easier and clearer for me.

  Nov 16, 2021     Vertical stabilizer - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

While I am waiting for parts for the HS I moved to the vertical stabilizer. The rear spar had previously been removed for inspection. I cleaned the spar and inside the VS, then inspected the skin and all riveting. I found six rivets on the skin that were sitting proud and seven on the spar that were not set properly. I removed the rivets on the skin and set new rivets. Only two of the spar rivets needed to be removed, the rest could be set properly with a rivet gun and bucking bar. Once that was completed I riveted the spar in place and closed up the VS. It is done.

  Nov 16, 2021     Horizontal stabilizer - (2.0 hours)       Category: Empennage

Today I spent time cleaning and inspecting the HS aft spar as well as the inside of the remaining skin. I found two rivets that I decided to remove and replace on the aft spar, but everything else looks great. There is an area on the aft spar that should have been removed and wasn't. You can see the marked area in the second image. The bearing in the image is the connection for the elevator horns. The spar flange will interfere with the movement of the elevator horns and prevent them from reaching the stop. I will fix that when I reassemble the HS.

  Nov 16, 2021     Drilling out rivets - (6 hours)       Category: Empennage

I purchased this kit from friends, but they are still interested in helping with the build process. Many hands make light work. While I was out of town Helen drilled out a lot of rivets to salvage the ribs from half of the horizontal stabilizer. All the ribs came out without any enlarged holes. That means we are able to use the left side of the HS, the ribs from the right side and the aft spar. When I got home I cleaned up the ribs, lightly sanded some minor scratches, then primered those areas. The new parts cost $162.00. With Vans Will Call I can drive down to get them in the morning.

  Nov 09, 2021     Repair work begins - (2.0 hours)       Category: Empennage

We started the repair work on the empennage today. The empennage is the first kit that folks work on so it is not too surprising that we found a few errors. While the rest of the empennage seems okay the horizontal stabilizer is not. As you can see in the images there are two suspect rivets. The first one has a small square of aluminum underneath it that servers no purpose except to hide something. That something was an oversized hole, but interestingly only in the rib flange not the underlying structure. That rib will get replaced. On the other side you can see an AN-5 rivet where there should be an AN-4. After drilling it out and looking at edge distance we decided to replace the rib and the underlying structure. That decision led to replacing the right side of the HS. We will attempt to salvage the internal ribs but certainly replace the spar, the skin (due to a scratch) and the two angles that attach the two spars together.

Parts will be $162.00 if we don't replace all the ribs on the right side.

EDIT: After talking with Vans Tech Support and discussing a repair the forward two ribs can be repaired. I will replace the flange on both forward ribs.