Vertical Stab Dorsal Fins

Build hours: 277

Both dorsal fins have been installed. The steps were posterboard pattern, metal template, vaccuum formed radius, particle board form blocks, flanging, shrinking, drilling, deburring, riveting, ADMIRING!

Note:

Some of the rivet stems in our latest batch of Avex rivets have been breaking above the rivet. This may be due to the thinner materials being riveted or inconsistency in the Avex "non-structural" rivets. Either way, when the stem breaks above the rivet, the formed head is opened like flower petals. In the tail area, this has been happening approx. 1 out of every 30 rivets requiring the rivet to be removed and replaced.

After the dorsal fin high, we moved on to kitting the horizontal stab. The outboard ribs were shaped over form blocks with a small amount of shrinking work and all of the spar components were formed up in the break.