There was a time, frankly, when I would've gotten to a point I got to today where I'd sacrifice quality for speed. It came after I finished trimming the top of the stabilator skin where it was contacting the empennage fairing. I had marked the bottom and the easy thing, it seemed at the time, would be to just work from underneath to trim away the bottom part. But would working upside down REALLY result in a quality trim? No, of course it wouldn't. So I took the stabilator off.

You did what, now? Sure, it's a pain in the neck to get it back on by myself and all but of course it would be easier to work with it sitting on the bench. And it was. I used a Dremel and attachment that, I saw when I finished, has basically been destroyed by cutting aluminum. But it did the job accurately.

Taking the stabilator off also gives me the opportunity to take the VS and rudder back off (you're going to do WHAT, now?) and polish them up with the G9 I got from NuVite. I want to get the milling finish off the VS and there's a little bit of skin to file away on the bottom that is just about contacting the tail cone. Then I can put them back on for the last time.

Of course, when the polished-up stabilator goes back on, I still will have to fit the fairing to make sure there's no interference and the attach holes need to be drilled and nutplates installed.