The empennage came with a small practice kit. I was going to hide it away some day and save it as a rainy day project for the kids or for a friend. But my oldest saw it and was so excited to build it. I'm glad we did, I think it really helped to get him excited about the project overall.

He actual got to measure and mark the rivet locations, he center punched them, then drilled (with a lot of assistance). I showed him how to deburr the holes and we tried to cleco the holes but he doesn't quite have the arm strength. We're going to need to work on that forearm grip strength so I can have a real helper in the future. I took care of the rivets but he got to at least see how the squeezer worked and even the machine counter sink. He thought it was the absolute coolest thing. He calls it the “PPP” - Perfect Practice Piece - he's so proud of it.

For my benefit, it actually was good to do this last little kit. It included nut plates which I have not done to date, and I was happy that I set my squeezer perfect right off the bat. I even noticed what I believe is an error in the plans calling too long of a rivet. I made my own call on the rivet length and it came out well.