The horizontal stabilizer is the first part of the kit you begin building - if you follow Van's directions. Many builders instead start with the vertical stabilizer. I wish I had. It's easier to build, has fewer parts, and it's good to get a little practice riveting before you start the horizontal stabilizer.
The horizontal stabilizer isn't particularly more difficult than the vertical stabilizer except for riveting the inboard ribs, which are angled, to the main spar and doubler plate. It's easier to rivet this joint before the skins are in place. This would be a really good chance to have an experienced builder or tech counselor visit. I also recommend getting some Snap-soc rivet set caps from Avery's for those rivets that you can't set with a squeezer.
It's also common to have some difficulty getting the skins wrapped around the nose ribs without the nose ribs denting the skin a bit, including when first assembling prior to match-drilling. When it's time to rivet the nose skins you'll find that it's a small space to get a bucking bar into. Wrap electrical or duct tape around all the other exposed sides of your bucking bars to help prevent it from making unwanted dents.
Total Construction Time: 76 hours
December 23, 2005
Both my empennage kit and tool kit arrived this week. Inventoried all the parts and getting the shop ready to start building. All the HS parts are on and under the table.
December 25, 2005 (2 hours)
Cleco'ed and match drilled HS-902 Front Spars and HS-907 Front Spar Doubler Plate. Began fabricating HS-908-L/R Attach Angles.
December 26, 2005 (2 hours)
Finished fabricating HS-908-L/R Attach Angles, match drilled and cleco'ed to Front Spar Assembly.
December 27, 2005 (7 hours)
Cleco'ed HS-903 Rear Spars and HS-906 Doubler Plate. Deburred all HS-904 Main Ribs and HS-905 Nose Ribs - took most of day.
December 28, 2005 (5 hours)
Match drilled HS-903 Rear Spars and HS-906 Doubler Plate. Cleco'ed and match drilled HS-912 Outboard Hinge Brackets to Rear Spar Assembly. I fluted all of the Main and Nose Ribs. Assembled Front and Rear Spars with all but the angled innermost Main and Nose Ribs. Now it's really starting to look like an airplane part!!! When I fluted the ribs I made them lay flat on the countertop, but now I noticed that the holes do not align perfectly. I'll need to re-flute while trying to be careful to keep the flanges perpendicular to the webs.
December 29, 2005 (1 hour)
Fabricated HS-909 Shims and attached the interior two Main and Nose Ribs to HS Assembly.
December 30, 2005 (2 hours)
Aaron and I match drilled the Main and Nose Ribs with Front and Rear Spars. Started fitting the skin trying to figure out if the slight hole misalignments of the ribs and spars was going to be a problem. With a little tweaking the skin started fitting just fine. Looks like I can put the whole assembly in the jigs and start match drilling instead of taking the whole thing apart. Hope the right side goes together as well.
December 31, 2005 (5 hours)
Cut out the HS jigs and decided I needed to take the assembly back apart and reassemble into the skin a piece at a time. Finished match drilling the Left HS shown here. Later Tracy and I cleco'ed and match drilled the Right HS.
January 1, 2006 (1 hour)
Disassembled the Right HS then removed strips of vinyl along the rivet lines from both left and right skins.
January 2, 2006 (6 hours)
Deburred all the holes in the HS skins, ribs, spars and doubler plates. Nothing to photograph. Need to finish deburring the edges of the spars, skins and doubler plates and then it will be time to start dimpling.
January 3, 2006 (1 hour)
Spent some time filing the edge of the Rear Spar Doubler Plate.
January 4, 2006 (2 hours)
Almost finished filing/deburring the edges of the Front and Rear Spar Doubler Plate.
January 5, 2006
Reserved N291MT (our anniversary month/year/Mike/Tracy).
January 6, 2006 (1 hour)
Finished deburring the Front and Rear Spar Doubler Plates.
January 7, 2006 (3 hours)
Smoothed out a few scratches and later dimpled the skins and ribs.
January 8, 2006 (5 hours)
Countersunk holes in spar flanges and deburred spar edges.
January 9, 2006 (2 hours)
Countersunk holes in doubler plates and rear spar and deburred HS skins. Mistakenly countersunk two holes in back of rear doubler instead of back of rear spars, emailed Van's for direction.
January 10, 2006 (2 hours)
Deburred the Front and Rear Spar lightening holes. Van's replied that the voids left from the extra countersinks in the back of the doubler will be okay - it won't effect the strength. All Horizontal Stabilizer parts are (finally) ready for corrosion-proofing!!!
January 15, 2006 (6 hours)
Sanchem'ed all the HS and VS parts, excluding skins. Still need to add sealer to parts.
January 17, 2006 (1 hour)
Decided to Alodine key structural parts, in this case the two HS doublers and the two bare aluminum attachment angles. Debating spars/ribs/etc.
January 20, 2006 (3 hours)
Decided to stick with the Sanchem for all the rest of the HS and VS parts and also use it on the skins. Applied sealer to all the parts excluding the skins. I applied the conversion chemicals to the inside of the HS and VS skins.
January 21, 2006 (4 hours)
Applied sealer to the inside of the HS and VS skins. Then used a heat gun on all sealed surfaces. The two spar doublers looked worse with sealer over the Alodine, which I believe is too heavy of a coat. Removed all the Alodine on the two doublers, re-Alodine a lighter coat, and then sealed both. I'm now completely ready to start riveting the HS and VS. Started practicing riveting a little.
January 22, 2006 (3 hours)
Finally squeezed some rivets!!! Riveted the doublers to the front spar and added the attachment angles. Also riveted the doublers to the rear spar and added the elevator attachment angles to the aft side.
January 24, 2006 (2 hours)
Finally bucked some rivets!!! Spent time trying to make sure the center nose rib fit snugly to the skin. Then riveted the nose rib in place. It's very difficult to get a bucking bar on that very front rivet, and after drilling a few out, finally got 10 nice looking, pretty flush rivets in place. Things should speed up considerably after this.
January 25, 2006 (3 hours)
It's starting to look like an airplane part again. Riveted the skins to the inboard and outboard nose ribs. Riveted the three inboard main ribs to the main spar. Spent a lot of time riveting the inboard nose and main ribs to the main spar, which was really tricky. Two of the three rivets look acceptable, will look more closely at the third one later. Next it's time to rivet the skins to the main spar and ribs. Everything's cleco'ed in place as seen in the picture.
January 27, 2006 (3 hours)
Decided to drill out the one remaining bad rivet at the inboard rib/spar intersection. Figured out how to get my squeezer in there and got a relatively decent rivet in place. Talked with Bruce at Van's and he reiterated "do not try to replace bad rivets" and the famous "build on" line. Feel much better about the rivets at this point. Later I started bucking all the inboard skin to rib and spar rivets, completing both sides. The rivets came out real nice, and I feel I'm already getting the hang of bucking inside tight areas a bit.
January 28, 2006 (5 hours)
Made a lot of progress today. Completed riveting the left and right skins to the ribs/front spar assembly. Had one spot on the right top skin where I let the rivet gun slide off the rivet head and it dented the skin a little. I'm going to try and get it a little smoother and then all that's left is to rivet the rear spar on.
January 29, 2006 (3 hours)
FINISHED THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER!!!!!
