Yearly Archives: 2013

Horizontal Stab 11 (0.5 hr)

This entry was posted in Empennage Horizontal Stab and tagged mistakes rivetbangers on by

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.

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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.

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Horizontal Stab 10 (1.5 hrs)

This entry was posted in Empennage Horizontal Stab and tagged mistakes on by

I finished the intersection of the front two spars tonight. However there is a mistake that cannot be rectified on the HS-405 rib. I will call Van’s technical support tomorrow to see if putting a rivet in the center of the front flange will be acceptable otherwise I will need to order a new one.

After I completed that I clecoed together the left spars and ribs. I then began to cleco on the skin.  All the match drilling for the ribs and spars is complete and it appears that all the drilling for the skin is also complete. I still need to verify that the previous builder did not miss any holes.

Here are some pictures of the HS-405 mistake that I’ve made.  I will post more tomorrow.  I measured the rib upside down, and because the HS-404 is not symmetric the holes are shifted (down in the picture below).  My potential thought is to either press, replace, or place a third rivet.

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Horizontal Stab 9 (2.0 hrs)

This entry was posted in Empennage Horizontal Stab and tagged mistakes priming on by

I emailed Mike after my last workshop session.  I was dismayed and frustrated with my mistakes and unsure of whether or not I needed to replace the parts.  Mike agreed to come over this evening to take a look at the mistakes and give me some guidance on anything I might need.  Turns out that I was over-reacting!  While the countersinks are overdone, they will not present a significant weakness.  Additionally, while the one hole is slightly outside of edge distance tolerances, there is more than enough support elsewhere for it to not be an issue.

Mike’s visit was an excellent opportunity for me to get set up for priming.  Here you can see the rear spar for the horizontal stab after priming.  The process is much easier than I had imagined, and I’m really pleased with the results from my super cheap harbor freight gun.  The cap on the paint container does leak if you don’t keep the gun upright, so I’m going to have to figure out a solution to that problem.  My confidence is restored!

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