It feels like it has been a month since I last worked on the plane, but a look at
the calendar shows it's just been two weekends... okay, add in the weeks between
and it's 3 weeks. I've just been too busy, and still trying to fight some
bug.
It was a good work week, got a lot done, which left me feeling motivated to make
some progress on the plane. I set a goal to try and finish the horizontal
stabilizer... totally. Have it riveted and done.
Here's the right-hand parts going together, before the skin gets put on for final
drilling.
I was all business. Came in straight from work, hugged the wife and kids,
and went at it. Didn't even take off the phone.
An hour later, the skin was on. This is harder than it looks... those front
nose ribs get WAY in there at a tight bend radius around the leading edge.
It's almost impossible to not scratch the inside of the skin a little bit.
The center section rib doesn't come predrilled, so you clamp it in place and drill
it out yourself, using the holes in the skin as a guide. Here, I've drilled
all the holes, adding clecos as I go. Of course, right after you get them
all drilled out, you have to pull the part back off so you can get all those metal
chips out of there.
The HS710 and HS714 stiffener bars are clecoed in place so you can match drill them
to the HS404/HS405 ribs and the HS702 front spar; you have 5 parts connected at
this one spot in a sort of al-you-min-ium sandwich.
Here's a better view of where those parts all come together.
All done with initial work. In 3 hours tonight, I did what it had taken me
3 months to do on the left hand side. Familiarity helps a lot, but desire
to see some progress helps more. :-)
Lindsay came out to help and to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
After you get it put together, you get to take it all apart again, for deburring,
dimpling, edge finishing, cleaning and primering, before you put it all back together
for the final time. That will have to wait til tomorrow. I'm tired,
but I feel great at the progress made today.
