Oct 21, 2023     Drilling out the rudder spar - (5.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I've been taking a significant break in building due in part to the laser cut parts issues from Vans Aircraft, and basically running out of components that I could start assembling without eventually hitting a part I would be blocked on.

One of the pieces that I'll need to replace is the spar in the rudder. Fortunately, I decided not to make the final rounded bends in the leading edge of the rudder skins, since that have made the spar removal significantly harder. There were quite a few rivets that needed to be drilled out, but I think I managed to remove them all without negatively impacting any of the skins or ribs that are being kept. This took longer than I expected, and I ended up doing this operation over several days just to take a break from the task.

There are just a few more large rivets heads that are stuck in the rudder horn, but I'm considering just ordering a new one also since trying to remove the rest of the rivets is likely going to introduce some unintended damage to it.

  Sep 23, 2023     Cutting elevator foam blocks - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The trailing edges of the elevator uses foam blocks that are cut to shape and glued in place. To create these foam blocks I had to cut out paper templates and use spray adhesive to hold them onto the rectangular foam chunks. Once the adhesive had dried overnight I could use the bandsaw to roughly cut the foam pieces, and then the bench-top sander to trim the pieces closely to the lines on my paper templates. This all worked out quite well. Unfortunately, one piece of foam tipped over and out of my hand during sanding and is very slightly misshapen on one side, but I don't think it is significant enough to be a concern since the glue that will be later used (tank sealant) is quite viscous and can fill that slight void easily.

Next was to take two of the elevator skins and trim off an excess corner that was the result of the manufacturing process. I marked the line using a ruler and then cut the bulk of it using sheet metal snips, and then refined the line using the bench-top grinder again.

  Sep 17, 2023     Starting Elevator prep - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I've started working on the Elevator by gathering all of the punched parts and looking at what steps I could accomplish while I wait for the necessary replacements for the laser-cut ones. Hopefully the promised ordering form will become available later this week, though I'm sure it will be weeks/months before I receive all of the replacement parts.

After some blue film removal, I cut the trailing ribs apart on the bandsaw and then smoothed all of their edges with the Scotchbrite wheel on the benchtop grinder. There was also some deburring of the existing rivet holes with my hand deburring tool. Then I clecoed all of the rib halves together as instructed, which also keeps them together and minimizes the chances of getting lost.

Then I marked the Shear Clips with a pen and cut them apart on the bandsaw as well, followed by edge smoothing.

What's next? Looks like cutting some pieces of foam for the trailing edges.

  Sep 11, 2023     Finishing last rivets of HS - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

The only thing remaining on the Horizontal Stabilizer was to finish squeezing the last rivets on the flange of the rear spar that connects it to the skins. These were all the same length rivets so it made things go very quickly with the hand squeezer.

What's next? There are several laser-cut parts in all of the remaining sections of the empennage kit, so I may be starting to run low on new sections that I can start. Hopefully Vans announces the LCP replacement ordering page this week, though I'm sure it will probably be weeks or even months before I will receive all of those replacements.

  Sep 10, 2023     Beginning to rivet HS rear spar - (0.5 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

This was just a brief session to start installing some of the larger rivets that hold the Horizontal Stabilizer rear spar together. On each end of the HS there were 3 solid round-head rivets that needed to be installed with my hand squeezer. Then along each of the internal ribs, 3 more blind rivets needed to be installed using the hand rivet puller. Finally, along the two inner edges of both sides of the HS there were 3 more solid round-head rivets that needed to be squeezed.

What's next? Start squeezing all of the flush rivets that hold the skin to the rear spar.

  Sep 08, 2023     Riveting lower skin of HS - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

In this session, I went about finishing the riveting of the fluish rivets on the lower skin of the Horizontal Stabilizer. These all involved positioning the bucking bar inside the skin with one hand and holding the air rivet gun in the other on the outside of the skin. As with the previous session, there were 4 different length rivets that I had to keep track of and ensure they went into the right holes.

After that was done, I moved the rear spar assembly out of storage, positioned it between the skins, and then clecoed it into place.

What's next? Squeeze all of the final rivets on the rear spar, and some blind rivets for the ribs.

  Sep 05, 2023     Riveting top skin of HS - (4.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Progress continued on the Horizontal Stabilizer with me working on flush riveting the top skin. This work was actually done over several days as I had a spare moment, so this log entry is all of them combined. There's something like four different length rivets that I had to use, so it was important to keep track of which ones went where. I tried to stick with one size of rivet for as long as possible before moving on to the next size.

I've also been spending some time auditing which laser-cut parts I will need to consider re-ordering once Van's Aircraft opens up the new page. It looks like I may be pretty limited on what I can work on next, since most of the remaining assemblies have at least a few LCP that would prevent me from completing them.

What's next? Time to flush rivet the bottom skin, and then to attach the rear spar.

  Sep 01, 2023     Offset riveting the HS spar - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

After preparing myself as much as possible for the challenge, I started using the double-offset rivet set to drive these rivets that attach the inboard ribs to the forward spar of the Horizontal Stablizer. This type of riveting is always challenging for me and I usually end up having the attempt some of the rivets multiple times before I'm satisfied with the result.

After those spar rivets were done, I started using the hand squeezer on the AD3-3.5 rivets along the inboard edges and tips of the HS. These all proceeded without any issues, other than some clearance limitations in a few places where the lightnening holes in the ribs.

What's next? I'll have to use the air rivet gun to drive all of the remaining flush rivets in the skin, and then I'll join the rear spar assembly on.

  Aug 30, 2023     Nose ribs and HS assembly - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This session started by repeating the work that I did yesterday on the other side of the Horizontal Stabilizer, by riveting the two nose ribs onto the other half of the skin section. This work seemed to go a little more quickly than it did yesterday, probably because I had fresh riveting practice.

Once those two final nose ribs were riveted, I positioned both skins on the cradles and then positioned the forward spar assembly into place. This was then followed by loading up several dozen clecos to hold everything in alignment and it was very satisfying to see such a huge assembly coming together.

Finally, I installed the dozen blind rivets that hold the spar assembly to the nose ribs in the skin with my hand riveter tool. This was challenging due to the limited space within the skin and the placement of the ribs, but I managed to get it done.

What's next? Some double-offset riveting near the center of the spar.

  Aug 29, 2023     Riveting nose ribs into HS skins - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

In this session I started using the airgun to rivet two of the nose ribs into the Horizontal Stablizer skin. Riveting nose ribs is always a bit of a challenge because the surface isn't flat so you have to be very careful about the angle of the rivet gun and the bucking bar. Additionally, with very limited space inside of the skin I'm not even able to hold the bucking bar in an orientation that would put all of its mass in-line with the riveting action. I did end up having to drill out maybe 4 rivets and try setting them a second time before I was satisified with them.

What's next? Two more nose ribs in the other skin, and then I can begin attaching the leading spar to these pieces.

  Aug 28, 2023     Priming the HS skins - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

This was a quick session to spray some primer on the interiors of the Horizontal Stabilizer skins to provide some extra corrosion protection (beyond the Al-cladding provided from the factory). As with other skins that I've already done, I'm choosing to save weight/waste by only priming the areas of the skin that will be in contact with other internal components, since those are the areas where moisture will tend to accumulate and promote corrosion.

I started by scuffing the contact areas with a Scotch-brite pad to roughen up the surfaces and provide slightly better primer adhesion. Then a quick wipe-down of the surfaces with acetone to clean off the scuffing debris and any oils. Finally, a quick spray of self-etching primer and then resting until dry.

What's next? Time to start air riveting the nose ribs into the fronts of the skins.

  Aug 27, 2023     Riveting the HS ribs and stringers to the spar - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Now that all of the ribs and stringers of the Horizontal Stabilizer were primed, I could begin riveting these internal parts together into a basic assembly. The primary parts were the two modified inner ribs and the stringer web, and then bracing their sides with the two longer stringers. All of these parts were riveted together with round universal head rivets and squeezed with my hand squeezer.

Once those five pieces were joined, they could be connected to the forward spar, again with more universal head rivets using my hand squeezer. Some of the rivets were specified as using longer rivets where the spar doubler was penetrated, so I had to be sure to put those in the right places. After that, I riveted on more ribs along the outer sections of the forward spar, as well as just the two outermost nose ribs. (The remaining nose ribs will apparently be first riveted onto the skin and then blind riveted onto the forward spar later.)

I also spent some time treating all of the countersunk rivet holes in both spars with my alodine pen to minimize future corrosion risk in those holes.

What's next? I'm going to do some quick priming on the interior of the skins and then start air riveting the nose ribs.

  Aug 26, 2023     Counter-sinking HS stringers and priming parts - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The last parts in the Horizontal Stabilizer that needed to be machine-countersunk were the stringers. As before, I used my micro-stop drill tool to make these countersunk to allow the dimpled skin to later fit into these rivet holes. This countersinking had to be repeated for the two stringers.

Once that was done, I took the ribs and stringers and used a scotchbrite pad to scuff up the surfaces and then clean them with acetone. Then I sprayed a quick coat of self-etching primer and allowed these pieces to dry.

What's next? Time to start riveting together some of these internal parts.

  Aug 24, 2023     Counter-sinking the HS spars - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

In this session I used the microstop machine-countersinking tool to prepare the flanges on both sides of both spars. Since these spars will eventually be riveted to a dimpled skin, they have to be countersunk for the backside of the dimple.

What's next? There's a couple of more pieces that need to be countersunk, and then I think I may need to spray some more primer prior to more riveting.

  Aug 22, 2023     Finish dimpling HS skin - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

This session was a repeat of last night's session but for the other skin of the Horizontal Stabilizer. As before, I did most of the dimpling on the DRDT2 table, and then finished up the dozen inaccessible holes with the hand-riveter with close-quarters dies.

What's next? Making lots of metal chips by machine countersinking the flanges in both spars

  Aug 21, 2023     Starting dimpling of H-stab skin - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I set out both skins for the Horizontal Stabilizer and used a sharpie to mark the rivet holes that shouldn't be dimpled. Then I took one skin over to the DRDT2 table and dimpled as many of the rivet holes that I could reach in the first skin. About a dozen or so rivet holes had to be dimpled with the pop-riveter die set.

What's next? Dimple the other skin, then machine-countersink the spars.

  Aug 20, 2023     Dimpling h-stab ribs - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This brief work session focused on preparing the ribs for the Horizontal Stabilizer. The first step was to match-drill some new rivet holes in the nose ribs and the inner ribs, using the spar as a template. The instructions specifically say to match-drill those two parts (nose and inner rib) individually, however I didn't see that note and attempted to drill them while they were both clecoed to the spar together. This unfortunately resulted in not having the HS-1004 inner ribs clecoed flush when match drilling, so their single center holes got slightly offset and then oblong-shaped when I tried to properly re-drill them.

While contemplating my options and whether I needed to order two replacement HS-1004 ribs, I realized that I could simply swap those badly drilled ribs for the other positions where the HS-1004 is used since they don't need the center hole there. I marked these bad holes with a "X" on their flanges, as seen in the right stack in the photo.

After puzzling over the intentions of the instructions for a while, I carefully marked all of the holes that didn't need dimpling and used the hand-squeezer to dimple the holes that needed it.

In other good news, I was able to borrow the H-stab cradles from Tyson, another RV-14 builder from my local EAA chapter, saving me probably a couple of hours of effort to manufacturing those single-use jigs.

What's next? Start preparing the skin for dimpling.

  Aug 09, 2023     Deburring H-stab ribs - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

I had some time to get back on the project, so I started by beginning some of the preparation of the ribs that will go in the Horizontal Stabilizer. The edges of all of these parts are still sharp from the factory punching process, so I used the Scotch-Brite wheel on the bench grinder to smooth the outer flat edges. All interior lightening holes were deburred with the hand deburring tool and then smoothed over with a Scotch-Brite pad. Then I used the bench grinder again to contour the leading edge facets of the nose ribs to prevent protrusions through the skin later.

What's next? Dry fitting, match driling of these ribs, and probably some priming.

  Aug 05, 2023     Riveting the H-stab spar - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

With the Horizontal Stablizer spar assembled to its doubler and two spar caps with clecos, I could now begin riveting them together. This involved both universal head and flush head rivets of multiple lengths, so it was important to keep track of which ones went in which hole. Fortunately I was able to squeeze all of them with my hand riveter. I did notice that some of the rivets in one of my jars were mixed up with rivets that were slightly too short, so I had to spend a little time hand-sorting them into the correct jars.

What's next? Time to start preparing the ribs to be assembled together.

  Aug 04, 2023     Priming H-stab spar - (0.5 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

I sprayed the Horizontal Stablizer spar parts with a quick coat of self-etching primer. Once they were dry, i moved them back inside to the workshop and clecoed them together.

In other news, I received word today that my Hartzell propeller was ready for final payment prior to shipping, so that means I'll be receiving it soon--even though I requested that my engine be scheduled for delivery at the end of next year.

What's next? Time to start some riveting.

  Aug 03, 2023     Drilling, countersinking, deburring, scuffing H-stab spar - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

In this session, I clecoed the spar doubler plate to the spar and final drilled all of the matching holes. A couple of the larger 1/4" holes were called out to be final drilled using a drill press, so I did that too. Next, a dozen holes on the spar doubler and a bunch more on the spar flange had to be machine countersunk to allow flush rivets to be later installed.

Then I unclecoed all of the parts and begun a final deburring of all of the new holes, and then a quick scuff of all of the surfaces with a scotchbrite pad and a wipedown with acetone to prepare for priming.

What's next? Time to prime these parts and then begin riveting these spar parts together.

  Aug 02, 2023     Match drilling second spar cap for H-stab finished - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This session involved repeating what I did last night and match drilling the remaining other spar car for the Horizontal Stabilizer. This was again done in two phases, with the drilling of the part that nests against the spar cap webbing first, and then deburring both surfaces, and match drilling the spar flange.

What's next? Match drilling the spar doubler against the spar.

  Aug 01, 2023     Match drilling first spar cap for H-stab - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Tonight's task was to clamp one of the spar cap (stiffeners) to the inner flange of the forward spar of the horizontal stabilizer, and then match drill all of the holes. The holes on the spar web were #30, while the holes on the spar flange were #40, and there was a bunch of deburring of the holes in between the two operations to ensure that there was a completely tight match between the surfaces. I was initially concerned about the amount of bowing/bend that was in these spar caps as they had been delivered from the factory (the instructions mention that there would be some bend), but they clamped quite flat against the spar just fine.

What's next? Repeat the same steps for the other spar cap.

  Jul 30, 2023     Cutting spar caps for H-stab - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Resuming work on my Horizontal Stabilizer meant trimming the corners off 4 pieces of spar caps (bent stiffeners) by using the bandsaw to extend a line through notches that had been made by the factory. After cutting off the excess, I used the bench sander to even up the cut, and then the scotchbrite wheel on the bench grinder to deburr and smooth all edges.

What's next? Match drilling these spar cars.

  Jul 15, 2023     H-stab spar - (4.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I started this session by stripping off the blue vinyl from all of the Horizontal Stabilizer parts, and then deburring the holes and edges of the spar and its doubler plate. A number of holes in the doubler had to be match drilled and final drilled against the spar. A couple holes needed to be machine-countersunk to allow flush rivets to later be installed there. Then a final scuffing of both of these parts with a scotch-brite pad, wipedown with alcohol, and then a quick coat of spray self-etching primer.

Next, the powder-coated hinge brackets had to be clecoed and final-drilled against the spar as well. The instructions recommended doing a scuffing of the hinge brackets if you plan to eventually paint them, so I did that as well. Then I could begin riveting the doubler plate and these hinge brackets to the spar using solid rivets and my hand squeezer.

Finally, another pair of power-coated brackets needed to be final drilled with a bearing that would be installed between them. After a quick debur, these brackets could be riveted to the bearing with the hand squeezer as well. Then the assembled bracket needed to be bolted to the spar using some AN-bolts, washers, and nuts.

What's next? I need to final torque the bolts on that last bracket, and then begin working on prepping more parts for the H-stab. I probably need to start packeting for my Oshkosh trip this week as well.

  Jul 13, 2023     Pausing rudder and auditing h-stab - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Over the last week there has been a growing amount of online drama around the quality of parts produced by Vans using laser cutting processes. Although preliminary guidance has been given, I've decided to wait on performing the final few steps of closing up the rudder since those would make further inspections or repairs more difficult if needed. I will probably wait at least until after Oshkosh before I get back to working on the rudder, and there will hopefully be more finalized official guidance by then.

However, I have already looked very carefully under magnification at the rudder spar (the part of highest priority concern) and haven't been able to observe any cracking around the dimpled holes there yet. Unfortunately, I don't have photos to confirm whether or not the rudder spar originally came with blue vinyl plastic or not (which would indicate whether it was punched press and not laser cut). I'll also need to look more carefully at the other parts I've already built and moved to the hangar (wings, fuel tanks, ailerons, flaps, vertical stabilizer) to identify whether any of them have cracking.

I did use my 3D printer to produce bending templates that will eventually be used when I do finally curl the leading edges of the rudder in the future. The designs for these templates were available in the VAF forum and I just had to convert to STL and re-scale due to inches/millimeters differences.

The next part that I could work on will be horizontal stabilizer, so I got to work identifying all of the parts from my storage shelves and setting them out. Fortunately all of the h-stab parts except for one (HS-00916, stringer web) appear to be manufactured on punch press and not laser cut. That one laser-cut part does have some minor hole roughness, but I think I can clean it up with my deburring tool, plus it appears to be a part that is currently classified as a "third-priority concern" part.

What's next? Start prepping these h-stab parts, and maybe auditing some of the other parts that are on my shelves for laser-cut concerns. I will also need to begin packing for my trip to Oshkosh next week.

  Jul 06, 2023     Rudder counterweight and top rib - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I started this session by doing some final test fitting of the lead counterweight that will need to be installed inside the top of the rudder. I needed to countersink the two screwholes in the weight in order to allow dimpled holes to fit into them, but I found using the hand-operated hole deburring tool easier than setting up the machine-countersink. I also needed to remove a little material on the sides to allow the existing rivet shopheads to not contact, but a round file was good for that. Once I was happy with the fit, I mixed up a small batch of tank sealant and applied it to the bottom of the counterweight (based on some thread discussions on VAF) and then screwed the weight into place with its backing plate.

With the counterweight installed, I could now cleco in and then rivet the top rib of the rudder. Six of the rivet holes needed to be upsized slightly to accommodate blind rivets, but the rest of the holes with just simple flush rivets that I could install with my hand squeezer.

Finally, I installed the several dozen flush rivets along both flanges of the rudder spar that attach the skin to it. As I was installing these rivets I was inspecting carefully to see if there was anything of concern based on the recent laser-cut hole drama that was particularly affecting the spars of various parts, but I didn't notice anything unusual.

What's next? I just need to squeeze the double-flush rivets on the trailing edge, and then curl the leading rounded edges and then I'll be done with the rudder.

  Jul 04, 2023     Riveting together the rudder - (5.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This was a pretty long and productive session, starting with using blind rivets to attach the two halves of the rudder skins and reaching in between them to access the mating holes. I also cleaned the trailing edge with isopropyl alcolohol and then applied VHB tape to secure the trailing edge extrusion onto one side of the skins, holding it in place with clecos.

Once the two skins were riveted together, I inserted the rudder skeleton into the skin and started clecoing it together too. The splice strips and rudder horn at the bottom rudder needed to riveted with a combination of blind and solid rivets, the latter of which sometimes required me to switch to different yokes multiple times in order to access all of them. Fortunately I was able to use my hand squeezer on all of the solid rivets without any major problems.

The next task was to rivet in the counter-weight rib on the top edge of the rudder. At this point I realized that I had missed dimpling the handful of rivet holes that are forward face of the rudder where the two narrow strips of the rudder skins overlap with each other. Luckly, I was able to dimple these two skins together in place using my hand squeezer, and then finish riveting this counterweight rib in.

What's next? The lead counter-weight needs to be installed permanently, and then last few rivets (mostly along the spar flange and the trailing edge) need to be squeezed.

  Jul 03, 2023     Back-riveting the ribs onto the rudder skins - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The first task for today was to use my micro-stop drilling jig to machine countersink all of the holes on both sides of the trailing edge extrusion. This will allow the dimpled skins to nest into this extrusion for a flush surface on the trailing edge of the rudder.

After that, I started preparing to back-rivet the ribs onto both halves of the rudder skins. After loading up the rudder skins with flush rivets, I taped them in place with some blue painters tape and then flipped the skins over onto my bucking plate. The ribs could then be easily positioned onto the tail ends of the rivets and back-riveted quite easily. The one trick that I did this time was to use a small refrigerator magnet to monitor where the edge of my bucking plate was, to avoid accidentally riveting beyond the edge of the plate (which would easily dent/destroy the skin).

What's next? Time to start assembling the skin halves together and putting them onto the rudder skeleton.

  Jul 02, 2023     Nutplates and dimpling the rudder - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The last of the backordered parts for the empennage kit finally arrived, so I now have the nutplates and the VA-140 trailing edge extrusion. I started by fitting the trailing edge into place, marking the needed length, and then cutting it on the bandsaw. Next, I partially disassembled the rudder so that I could cleco the 3 nutplates into place and then squeezed the rivets into place with my hand squeezer.

Now, I could cleco the skins back onto the rudder and do some final drilling of the holes in the trailing edge. The rest of the skin holes appeared to already be final sized, but I did do some light deburring on holes that seemed to need it. Then I disassembled the skins and took them over the DRDT2 dimpling table to dimple all of the holes that will receive flush rivets later.

What's next? I need to machine-countersink the holes in the trailing edge extrusion, and then maybe start some back-riveting of the stiffeners onto the skins.

  Jun 26, 2023     Starting to assemble rudder ribs - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I started tonight's session by assembling the doubler plates onto the rudder spar and riveting them in place with the hand squeezer. A few of the rivets were a little challenging to get due to the flange or the rib getting in the way, but they got riveted in the end.

Unfortunately, I realized that the nutplates that I need to be riveting onto some of the doubler plates were still in the back-ordered items for this empennage kit. I'm also still missing the VA-140 trailing edge extrusion that I'll also need for later in this rudder section. So I'm moving on and will try to skip around the steps that are missing parts, but hopefully not advance too far ahead that will complicate installing the missing parts when they finally arrive. The Vans Aircraft kit status page says that a backorder shipment is being prepared for me, so maybe these parts will arrive soon.

The next thing I could do was start to cleco together the reset of the ribs to ensure I have all of the pieces in the right places. This was pretty satisfying seeing the shape the rudder start to form, and it also helps to understand which pieces still need to be dimpled.

What's next? I need to finish dimpling a few more pieces, and then I might be able to start dimpling the rudder skins too.

  Jun 24, 2023     Priming rudder parts - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This was a quick work session to prime the internal rudder parts since the next steps in the instructions would start to require parts to be riveted together. As usual, I started by roughing up all of the surfaces with scotch-brite pads and then wiping down with some acetone. After a quick spray with some self-etching primer on both sides of the parts, they were all ready for the next steps.

What's next? Start final assembly and riveting of the rudder parts to its spar.

  Jun 22, 2023     Skinwork and Drilling the rudder counterweight - (0.5 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

This was just a very brief session that started by pulling out the two rudder skins. The instructions calls for removing a narrow strip of excess material from each of them, so I used simple sheet metal shears to cut that and then smoothed off the edge with a file and scotchbrite pad.

The next step was to begin fitting the two ribs that are next to the lead counterweight inside the rudder. After clecoing the ribs and checking that they were already drilled to final size, I needed to prepare the lead weight itself to be eventually mounted. The supporting rib comes with only one of the two holes pre-drilled, so I had to use the lead weight to match drill the other hole in the rib. Both holes were final sized and then dimpled to allow a countersunk screw to go through the rib and the weight.

  Jun 21, 2023     Prepping internal rudder parts - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Work continues on preparing the internal stiffeners, doublers, ribs, and other parts for the rudder. Many of these parts come joined to each other as a result of the manufacturing process, and I need to use the bandsaw to separate them and then grind down the rough edges. A few of the curved ribs needed fluting to allow them to rest flat. Additionally, some of the corners of ribs and the rudder horn needed to be ground down to make them less sharp.

Once the parts were all separated and smoothed, I started assembling a few of the pieces together with clecos to allow their shared holes to be match-drilled, though it seems all of the holes were already final sized from the factory.

What's next? The rudder skins need some additional prep work, then probably some dimpling.

  Jun 19, 2023     Starting on the rudder - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This was a brief session to start the work on the rudder. A lot of the time was spent just looking through my shelves to find all of the parts needed for the rudder and setting them aside.

After that, I started by using the bandsaw to cut apart a few of the pieces that were delivered as combined parts. The freshly cut edges needed to be deburred and the new parts re-labelled with sharpie. One of the bracket pieces required using my Dremel tool to cut off the excess triangular corners since the bandsaw couldn't reach one side at a time.

What's next? There's still some more prep work to do to the rest of these parts before I can start seeing how they all fit together.

  Jun 18, 2023     Skinning the vertical stablizer - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I started this session by clecoing on the vertical stablizer's skin, but I started to realize that it would be impossible to access all of the interior rivets with the rear spar already attached. That's when I figured out that I shouldn't have riveted the rear spar on yet, so I drilled out the 5 rivets holding it on and started the skin assembly as intended.

I found it easiest to re-use the wooden wing cradles to support the vertical stabilizer upright, even though they were intended for much a wider part. Then I could stand on a step stool to reach down inside of the vertical stabilizer as I bucked each of the interior flush rivets. I was able to use my hand squeezer for the flush rivets along the exterior seams, though it helped to have a narrow-nose squeezer yoke in some places.

Once the skin was fully riveted to the ribs, I could then cleco on the rear spar and rivet that in place too. This was just a matter of reinstalling the 5 rivets that I previously removed (3 of which were blind rivets), and then installing the two rows of flush rivets along the rear spar flange. I was able to install almost all of the flush rivets on those flanges with the hand squeezer, however the few that were very close to the white brackets had reduced clearance around them so I had to buck them with the air rivet gun. These bucked rivets came out less than perfect due to the narrow space available, even when using the angled foot bucketing bar, but I didn't feel that I could improve them further after making a few attempts.

What's next? Time to start on the rudder.

  Jun 16, 2023     Riveting together VS spars and ribs - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

In this session I started riveting together the components of the vertical stabilizer rear spar. The rear spar has 3 pairs of brackets, plus a fork-shaped doubler, which must all be riveted together with -4 solid rivets that I used my hand squeezer on.

Then I started assembling the ribs with the front and rear spars with the called out solid rivets. I didn't know it at the time, but I didn't read the instructions carefully enough as I wasn't supposed to rivet the rear spar onto the ribs quite yet.

What's next? Start riveting on the skin of the vertical stabilizer.

  Jun 14, 2023     Vertical stab scuffing and priming - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I started the session by doing some final dimpling and machine countersinking of the spar doublers of the vertical stabilizer. This required some careful reading and research since I wanted to be sure that I was doing these operations on the correct side. The VS skin and the flanges of the ribs also required dimpling of its surface for flush rivets, which I used either the hand squeezer, the DRDT2 table dimpler, or the close-quarters pop rivet dimpler as appropriate.

Next was to finish scuffing all of the surfaces with Scotch-Brite pads, wipe down the parts with acetone, and then spray a coat of self-etching primer on them.

What's next? Cleco all of these parts back together and start riveting them.

  Jun 13, 2023     Vertical stab match drilling, deburring, and scuffing - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This session involved clecoing together all of the parts of the vertical stablizer to make sure they are all fitting properly. Once together, I could use my reamer to final drill all of the holes to their final matched dimensions. Once all final drilled, I disassembled the parts again and started deburring all of the holes and edges. The heavy doubler fork I took to the benchtop grinder to smooth the edges on the Scotch-Brite wheel, though the interior edges I had to use a hand-file and sandpaper to access. Then I started scuffing a few of the parts with Scotch-Brite pads.

What's next? Finish scuffing all parts, then dimple and countersink, and prime the parts.

  Jun 12, 2023     Starting work on vertical stabilizer - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I decided it was time to focus on the empennage kit so that I could keep the progress happening since I want to move the wings before doing anything else with them. The first new section was to work on the vertical stabilizer, and the first step was to identify all of the pieces, remove the blue vinyl plastic, and label the parts with a marker.

I had to cleco a doubler onto the front spar, then match-drill the remaining holes, and then trim off the bottom couple inches from this front spar. Then the temporary locating-portion of the doubler could also be cut off and discarded.

The next few power-coated pieces needed to be final-drilled and match-drilled while being clecoed against another fork-shaped doubler and another piece of the rear spar. I also retrieved the vertical stab skin out of the garage and stripped its protective vinyl coating.

What's next? Dimpling and maybe priming these parts before starting to rivet them together.