Riveted stiffeners and ribs to rudder skins. Also prepared the rudder trailing edge for riveting by sealing with pro-seal.
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After taking 2 days off to let the pro-seal in the rudder trailing edge cure, it's back to rudder riveting.
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Finally wrapped up the last steps on the rudder. The rudder is now complete and it is time to move on to the horizontal stabilizer.
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Started assembly of the horizontal stabilizer. First tasks are to fabricate some components and then assemble the fore and aft spars along with caps, doubler plates, and hinges.
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Primed the HS spars and associated parts. Riveted spar assemblies and sub-assemblies. Deburred all ribs in preparation for HS assembly. Also fabricated 4 HS cradles from MDF and 2x4 scraps to hold HS skins during assembly.
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Day 25 was spent preparing for the quick build fuselage and wings to arrive. Cradles with locking casters needed to be made to hold the wings and fuselage. Day 26 was the arrival day for the wings and fuselage. Lots of pictures of the new kit contents.
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Wings and Fuselage inventory, systems planning, and Horizontal Stabilizer work: deburring, fabricating, assembling, drilling, priming, final assembly and start of riveting.
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I wanted to get all my avionics orders in before the big show in Oshkosh when lead times jump up with all the in-person orders. Ran through lots of options, think I am getting close to settling on equipment choices.
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Finally got time for starting the final assembly of the horizontal Stabilizer. The first step is to assemble and rivet the HS nose ribs. Completed this today.
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Finally arranged enough time to wrap up that pesky horizontal stabilizer. It is now complete! Finally get to move on to the elevators and after that, finally the tail cone!
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Began work on the elevators. Fabricated and prepared all elevator parts and began preliminary assembly for match/final drilling.
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Completed the pre-assembly and drilling of the elevators. The elevators were then disassembled for hole deburring and dimpling.
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With the match/final drilling completed, it was time to disassemble the elevators for hole deburring, dimpling and priming preparations. After removing the protective vinyl coating from the skins, the process was started.
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Spent some more time figuring out where things will sit in the panel. It takes more time than you think.
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Continued final assembly of the elevators. I also received my Garnin GPSMAP 496. There's a few photos of that too.
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Fabrication and assembly of the elevator trim tabs.
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Finally with the elevators out of the way, it's time for the last component of the empennage kit, the tail cone!
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Continued work on the tailcone. Disassembled after drilling. Deburred and dimples structures, then primed all parts. Also a few photos I tried to get of the recent lunar eclipse (might as well, they were on the same CF Card..)
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Continued riveting the tailcone!
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