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.

UBC skin A to B doubler, vertical stab

Build hours: 150

Drilled the A to B skin at bulkhead A and added the A to B skin doubler.

Notched the F bulkhead for the vertical stab and added the vertical stab as detailed on UCA. An ATS rivet gun was purchased from Aircraft Spruce for 97$. This rivet gun worked really well and made the riveting process enjoyable. It was well worth the expenditure. Even without prior experience, Rick was driving first class rivets on the first attempt. Well, I still hold the title of "Rosy (the Riveter)" for now.

Vertical stab

Build hours: 129

Parts to complete the vertical stab were completed in an earlier post. The E to F skin was notched to accept the vertical stab and the stab was carefully plumbed to the leveled fuselage. The 1" spacing holes were drill in the F bulkhead and the bulkhead was removed. On the bench, the doublers were drilled and clecoed leaving space for the rudder control hinge. This was a good warmup for all of the riveting to come as we calculated rivet lengths, finished head sizes and practiced on a few scraps. After botching about every other rivet on the test pieces, we became adept at rivet removal and boldly moved on to the vertical stab.

The doublers were riveted where possible on the vertical stab and bulkhead. The rudder hinges were then positioned on the stab, underdrilled and reamed to 3/16" for the An3 attachment bolts. The doublers were riveted on and nutplates were installed with 3/32 flush rivets. Again, stopped and admired...

Rudder Hinges

Build hours: 86

The vertical stab and rudder hinges were made from 6061 1/8 square that was available. The hinge length was cut from the square stock and then multiple hinges were cut. After lay out the pilot holes were drilled, the angles were cut and a belt sander was used to finish and round piece.

Vertical Stab,Skin Patterns

Build Hours: 82

The vertical stab blank was cut from .020 6061. The vertical flanges were made in the bending brake and 3" flanging pliers were used to bend the top tab. The vertical stab doublers were cut from 6061 .025 and formed in the brake. The vertical stab hinge doublers were cut and match drilled. This was completed for both UCs.

Plan Note:
The length for the vertical stab does not include the 5/8" tab. The plans could use more detail around the vertical stab. The information is all there but it requires coalescing information from 3 different drawings.

Patterns were made for skin E-F and D-E. The long edge of a sheet of poster board was taped to the lower stringer with 4 1" strips of masking tape and wrapped over the top stringer. Another piece was overlapped on the lower stringer 3/4" taped and again, wrapped over the top stringer. The top overlap was taped with a 2" wide strip of masking tape. The flange edges were marked on the inside of the poster board. The poster board was then removed and trimmed to shape.