Horizontal Stabilator - 5

03-22-2013 thru 03-24-2013
At the end of the day, Sunday, I'm about 80 hours into the project. It was a prabout 3-hours of work in each day. Slowly the individual pieces are beginning to resemble an airplane. The stabilator really makes it feel like I'm making progress. The stabilator has an eight foot span, so it really begins to give one a sense of the scale of the airplane and the project as a whole.

Friday- ember of EAA Chapter 81 here in Tucson. I thought it was a good idea to have a technical councilor over to look at the stabilator before I 1put the skins on. It was time well spent. The councilor thought the workmanship was good and had some great ideas on how I might speed of some of the operations. Maybe a bandsaw and bench grinder with a polishing wheel are in my future.

I then proceeded with the final drill of all the holes, and a little clean-up.
Bottom surface cleco'd for final drill.

 Picture of the box-spar and assembly with the skins temprarily installed.

Saturday- I continued with the final drill and begant process. Must be close to 400 rivets installed- just guessing, I didn't count.

I decided to take some pictures of the stabilator skeleton prior to button-up- future reference I suppose. I guess the important area of assembly during this process is to ensure that the upper skin flange needs to be on the outside. Makes sense to keep the moisture out.

 Top-skin riveting complete!

Sunday- Today I finished riveting the main skins, installing the left/right splice, and installed the hinge brackets. 

One side complete

 Left and right hinge brackets for servo trim installed.

 Now I'm and little concerned about the aft skins HS-1217 left and right. Look at the tailing edge and the way it curves down. Anyone following this blog- what are your thoughts. Is this normal?

So, I'd say I'm 90-95% complete with the stabilator. Still need to install the counter-balnce arm and weights, and the actuator yokes. The stabilator has an 8-foot span-this is where I stop for the weekend! 

Friday April 5, 2013- Okay- new aft skins installed. Removed prior set and replaced with replacement items from Van's. Van's indicated that the prior set may have been bent incorrectly and offered to send replacements. Drilled out a total of 56 rivets on both sides. I used a magnet to retreve the rivet heads from inside the closed stabilator- all accounted for, no rattles. Installed the aft skins with cleo's and checked the fit. They look good- no droop. I also installed the upper and lower control arms. I'm done with the stabilator and 85 hours into the project. The only thing I didn't install was the counter balance arm and weights. Easier to store without. The tailcone is next- the wings are on order.