Progress on Horizontal Stabilizer
I got most of the horizontal stabilizer assembled this past weekend, save for the skins. Everything went together fine. I learned it’s a little tricky to get holes lined up just right for all the rivets to fit – especially when lining up overlapping parts with many holes, like in sections that are doubled (or tripled). I found that fitting in a bunch of loose rivets before putting in clecos helps get the parts lined up just right. Here’s an example of what I mean, you can see a bunch of loose rivets with the mandrels still sticking out:
Still, I had to use a #30 reamer to open up 2 of the holes a little bit – not too bad, considering I probably put in over 200 rivets so far. Doing quality checks as I go, I only had to drill out one rivet that wasn’t seated right. I’m pretty happy with the finished product:
The vertical stabilizer is next up in the manual, but I’m missing a few parts so I’m skipping ahead to the elevator for this week.