Vertical Stabilizer - 4 hrs 31 mins (V.S. 7:19, Empennage 10:00, Total 21:47)
Well, I got a bit carried away tonight and lost track of time. Even got ahead of the plans and did some deburring ahead of time. A lot was accomplished and the reward of an aircraft-looking piece to show for it!
Started off by finishing the assembly of the VS rear spar and match drilling it. Disassembly followed and it was time for countersinking. I had a spare spar from someone at the airport that screwed up their assembly and was able to fine tune the depth with it. This step was really frustrating and I now see why people invest in multiple countersink cages to be spared from having to do that step repeatedly.
After deburring, I reassembled the spar, and then deburred all the other parts of the VS in preparation for putting the skeleton together. I got the skin ready for attachment and this is when things got fun. I had forgotten to file down the ends of the nose rib pieces so they wouldn't dent the skin ($90 to reorder), so I took everything apart to get to the pieces. In the process of catching an error, I committed another by putting the pieces back together with the front spar facing the wrong way. I didn't notice until after putting everything together and instead of starting over I undid the skeleton with the nose ribs still attached to the skin. It was a pain, but I got it done without any damage. Finished clecoing and now I have a complete VS. -M
Well, I got a bit carried away tonight and lost track of time. Even got ahead of the plans and did some deburring ahead of time. A lot was accomplished and the reward of an aircraft-looking piece to show for it!
Started off by finishing the assembly of the VS rear spar and match drilling it. Disassembly followed and it was time for countersinking. I had a spare spar from someone at the airport that screwed up their assembly and was able to fine tune the depth with it. This step was really frustrating and I now see why people invest in multiple countersink cages to be spared from having to do that step repeatedly.
After deburring, I reassembled the spar, and then deburred all the other parts of the VS in preparation for putting the skeleton together. I got the skin ready for attachment and this is when things got fun. I had forgotten to file down the ends of the nose rib pieces so they wouldn't dent the skin ($90 to reorder), so I took everything apart to get to the pieces. In the process of catching an error, I committed another by putting the pieces back together with the front spar facing the wrong way. I didn't notice until after putting everything together and instead of starting over I undid the skeleton with the nose ribs still attached to the skin. It was a pain, but I got it done without any damage. Finished clecoing and now I have a complete VS. -M
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