April 1, 2012 (4 Hrs)

Today I installed all the hardware that was called for on the back of the tailcone and torqued each one before I marked them completed.

      

Next I final-drilled the Horizontal Stabilizer Tip Fairings (HS-910) and the Vertical Stabilizer Tip Fairing (VS-1009) using a #30 drill.  Then I removed them and deburred all the skins and countersink the fiberglass fairings.  I clecoed them back in place but I will probably not rivet it until I get it assembled at the hanger.

    

    

Finally as a bonus I got some extra help clecoing the Aft Top Skin (F-1075) in place, LOL!!!

    

    

March 28, 2012 (5 Hrs / 678 Hrs Total)

Tonight I trimmed and sanded the Vertical Stabilizer Tip Fairing (VS-1009) and fit it into the Vertical Stabilizer assembly again.  This time it was much closer to being flush with the vertical edge on the assembly however the gap between the back of the tip fairing was 3/8” from the rudder counter balance leading edge instead of the minimum 1/8” per the instructions.  I don’t want to just keep putting more layers of glass fiber on the fairing but I don’t like that huge gap and I really don’t want to rip it apart and start over.  So I just went ahead and laid up some more fiberglass so that I can sand it down later.  I also started assembling the Elevator Bellcrank (F-635) to the two Bellcrank Angles (F-1037A) and then to the Battery/Ballcrank Mount (F-1035).

    

    

    

March 26, 2012 (5 Hrs)

I came home tonight and started sanding down the dried flocked cotton fiber I had put on the Lower Rudder Fairing (R-1011) until it almost looked like one part.

    

Then I trimmed off the excess fiberglass around the Horizontal Stabilizer Tip Fairings (HS-910) and sanded it all down.  There is now a nice transition from the Horizontal Stabilizer Tip Fairings (HS-910) to the Elevator Tip Fairings (E-912) and everything clears.

    

    

    

I trimmed and sanded the Vertical Stabilizer Tip Fairing (VS-1009) and fit it into the Vertical Stabilizer assembly.  It comes up short of the vertical edge that it’s suppose to be flush with so I laid up more layers of fiberglass to hopefully get it to line up correctly.

    

March 21, 2012 (5 Hrs)

After some reading and watching different videos I was ready to make my first attempt at laying up fiberglass on the Horizontal Stabilizer Tip Fairings (HS-910) and the Vertical Stabilizer Tip Fairing (VS-1009).  However my first attempt did not go as well as I had hoped because it was very wavy.  So I ripped it off and cut out new foam ribs to start over with.  The second time came out much better and I was very pleased with the results.  I did the best I could removing the foam ribs and cleaning out everything I could possible reach.  For the next step I laid up three pieces of glass fiber inside each Horizontal Stabilizer Tip Fairing (HS-910) and allowed them to dry over night.  I also mixed up some flocked cotton fiber with epoxy and filled in the area where the gelcoat had broken out of the Lower Rudder Fairing (R-1011) and where the tail light adapter meets the fairing.  I let it dry overnight and will sand it down later.

    

March 7, 2012 (2 Hrs)

I started tonight by trimming the flange on the Vertical Stabilizer Tip Fairing (VS-1009) and then began fitting it into the Vertical Stabilizer assembly.  It did not fit very well because the forward edge would not line up flush with the assembly.  Therefore I cut and sanded the forward most flange until I was able to get it to fit flush to the front part of the assembly.  I then match-drilled the holes and clecoed each one as I moved around the part.

      

Dad came down later and helped me rivet the support angle to the stop/doubler and the aft deck using AN470AD4-7 rivets.  Then just for fun we laid the Horizontal and Vertical Stabilizers onto the Tail Cone.  It’s almost time to move it to the hanger and actually assembly it!!!

    

October 1, 2010 (4 Hrs)

I finished riveting the vertical stabilizer and now on to the rudder.

September 26, 2010 (3 Hrs / 143 Hrs Total)

It’s been a month since I’ve done any work to the vertical stabilizer.  I did try to do some buck riveting but did not have great success with the steel bucking bars.  I ordered a tungsten bucking bar that came in earlier this week and was able to put it to the test tonight.  I’ll never go back!!!  Meghan helped me by operating the rivet gun and I held the bar.  I gauged each rivet and visually inspected them to make sure they met my quality level.  We finished all the inner rivets on both sides, so the last ones left are around the edges that I can get to with the hand squeezer.

August 28, 2010 (5 Hours / 140 Hours Total)

I finally get to start riveting the vertical stabilizer together.  I just used the hand squeezer to start with and used the rivet gauge on each shop head to make sure I had the right diameter.  This was a lot of fun; however it can wear your hands out.  I see why some people might want to invest in the pneumatic squeezers.

One thing to watch out for is when you begin riveting the Top Rudder Hinge Brackets (VS-1012) and the Hinge Doubler (VS-1017) to the Rear Spar (VS-1003) start with the smaller rivets (AN470AD4-4) first.  Once all of these are done then rivet the Top Rudder Hinge Brackets (VS-1012) using the longer rivets (AN470AD4-5).  You may have to modify your tooling to get to the rivets that are closer to the 90° bend on the brackets.  I just filed down one side of my goose neck tooling.

August 22, 2010 (6 Hours)

After spending some time hanging plastic on Saturday, I am finally ready to prime my parts with Akzo 2 part primer.  I got the entire vertical stabilizer and rudder parts primed and will let them dry for a few days before I begin riveting them together.

August 18, 2010 (6 Hours)

I spent all night finishing up the alodining on the rest of my parts.  I used my dip tanks lined with the 4 mil plastic to finish up on the larger pieces.  I hung all of my parts up to dry over night and I will hopefully start priming them soon.