Horizontal Stab Finished!!! HOBBS: 48.0 hrs

Last night I reached my first milestone on the project, I finished the first major sub assembly of the plane....the Horizontal Stabilizer! Hard to describe how good that felt! It was very exciting, had to have a celebratory drink when it was done. I was working like a mad man as I got closer to being done, there was no way I was stopping last night until she was finished! :) Its pretty neat to watch as these flimsy alumimum parts slowly come together with each rivet set to become a solid structure. Aluminum aircraft construction really is quite amazing from an engineering standpoint, lightweight and strong.

My riveting skills on the skins started off shaky again, on only my second rivet my gun got away from me and I put a nice ding in the skin! Ugh! It quite honestly made me sick to my stomach to see that. But as I read some posts on VAF of others that had the same pit of the stomach feeling on their own projects and did some thinking I came to accept that this will not, try as I might, be a 'perfect' airplane. I will strive to do the best job I can, but also accept that there will be certain things that I wont like. As long as it is just a cosmetic issue, and not a safety issue, I am ok with that. It will add to the character of the airplane. Otherwise I would drive myself crazy...and this is supposed to be fun, not stressful. So, I have decided I will 'hide' that ding with some bondo later and no one but me will ever know...good thing I am painting it rather than polishing!! The good news is I steadily improved as I moved along. The right horizontal stabilizer looks much better than the left...the left was the first one. I also got into a rhythm with my riveting and by the end was able to set a -3 (3/32") rivet quickly with one precise pull of the trigger. I'm sure I will continue to get better and dont expect the quality to be as bad as that left HS. By the time I get to the wings I should be a pro...onward!!!

Here are some shots of my alodined parts, just before priming.


My homemade paint booth,

Spars hanging after primer,

Riveting the nose rib on the inside of the HS, I had to reach in here and buck these rivets.

The riveting of the skins begins,

Here is my SECOND rivet, and the afforementioned 'ding' in the skin. Damnit! :(

This is more like it, nicely done rivets.

Riveting the skins to the front spar, once again I had to reach my arm in here to buck these rivets. You can see a couple of cleco's in there as well.

And voila, my finished Horizontal Stabilizer. I felt like I had just given birth to my first child!! haha! As you can see from the smile on my face, it was a very cool feeling. Can you imagine what I will be like when I get the fuselage done??!!

And, me being me, I had to have a celebratory shot and beer to mark this momentous occasion! My girlfriend Samira, who took the photo, passed on drinking a shot with me...but did have a glass of wine! :)