Monthly Archives: February 2013
Horizontal Stab 12 (2.5 hrs)
I decided to use some scrap aluminum that I have laying around to see what a shim might look like for the HS-404 problem I have. In the first picture you can see the slight mis-alignment of the holes in the HS-404 and the front spar…
Here’s the shim I made from scrap aluminum:
And here is the shim between the HS-404 and the front spar:
After I made the shim, I posted to Rivetbangers and decided to mull over the problem a little more as I did some more work on the stab. I match drilled the entire right horizontal stab with the exception of the HS-404 (due to the above). The outside portions of the HS-810 and HS-814 reinforcement pieces still need drilled as well. I took the stab back apart and deburred and scuffed all the parts in preparation for priming. I’m going to do the same thing for the left side, and by the time I’m done, I should have come to a decision on my two problem parts. Right now I’m leaning towards replacement. While there are a few very workable solutions, I don’t like the idea of compounding errors. In the case of the HS-404 we could potentially have the shim AND the mis-aligned holes. Aligning the holes may very well create another problem… edge distance. With regards to the HS-405 on the other side, Mike Bullock’s solution may well be the way I go… re-drill, maybe add a third rivet, and press on. I assume you have to pay attention to edge distance between holes as well…
Here are pictures of the prepped parts ready for priming:
Horizontal Stab 11 (0.5 hr)
Tonight I just wanted to accomplish two things. First I wanted to determine what needs to be done about my bonehead mistake from last night. Second, the previous owner marked that the HS-404 for the right side needed to be replaced, and I wanted to determine if that was true or not.
For pics of my mistake from last night refer to my previous post.
Here are the pics of the bad HS-404 marked by the previous owner. It appears that there is a 1/8 gap between the flange and the spar. I believe it needs to be replaced.
I’ve emailed Van’s support about both problems and included pictures, and I will hold off on replacing the parts until I hear back from them.
I also posted to Rivetbangers.com (which I prefer to Vansairforce.com) here.
I have the day off tomorrow, and I’m going to try my best to put as much of that time as possible towards the kit. I’ve got a lot going on, so I’m shooting for a full morning or afternoon. Since the only problem child on the right stab is the HS-404 front rib, I’m going to match drill everything else, and then begin deburring and preparing the parts for priming. Because the HS-405 is more likely to affect alignment, I’m going to hold off on doing anymore work on the left stab until that problem is resolved.
