Reworked mistakes on the Vertical Stabilizer and worked on the rudder

Got to the shop Tuesday for 5 hours!! Made a ton of progress it feels like. My friend Matt stopped over and helped for 2 hours, it really makes the time fly by when your working with someone. I set my phone up to take video so i can edit it on my computer and add youtube links, I think I will be able to explain by narrating videos better than just typing away. The only problem is my phone is to new and my computer to old so they wont talk to each other with Apples new picture and video format. Not to be discouraged I bought a camera stand for my Sony DSLR and Im gonna try and take video with that and upload it directly to the computer. Anyway... Here is Matt removing the blue plastic from the outside of the skins where the rivets are. He is using a ruler as a straight edge and a soldering iron to melt the plastic.

Vertical Stabilizer

I spent the first part of the day reworking the spar on the rudder that I had previously drilled the wrong holes in. In the picture below I drilled the white brackets to spar attaching holes to a #12 and they should only be #30.

This is what that spar should have ended up looking like with the brackets and the double attached.

After I finished drilling and putting together the spar I took apart the Vertical Stabilizer and installed the new spar to match drill the holes. I am still waiting on the smaller front spar replacement and should have waited putting the skin back on to match drill I think. The nose on the leading edge ribs digs into the inside of the skin each time I try to maneuver the skin into place. Ill have to work out the scratches before priming the skins.

Rudder

After I reached a stopping point because Im still waiting on parts I turned my attention to the Rudder. The Rudder has a counter balance weight, E614, that needed to be countersunk and the R-912 Rib needed to be dimpled so I started with that. I haven't used my countersink cutters yet so there was a small learning curve to figure out how to get the depth set correctly. Mostly cut, check, readjust, cut more, repeat. This was one of the things I took a video of, so hopefully I can get it processed and put up.

Somehow I managed to loose 1 of the AN5909-10R16 bolts, I really don't want to order a new one because it has to be in the shop.....I think. I assembled the Rudder support brackets and matched drilled next.

After I got all the parts installed that I had prepped and noticed I was missing the top 2 support brackets! I went to the parts rack and there they were, but I ran out of time and had to head home. Next week Ill cut debur and install them.

Vertical Stabilizer 2.0 Hours, Rudder 3.0 Hours