Horizontal Stabilizer
Fixing and Finding mistakes today. First a few rivets on the front spar that I noticed weren't set well. Researching I found that If at .002" shim can slide behind the rivet head and touch the shank it needs to be fixed.
First I tried to re-buck the rivet but that didn't work well so I decided to drill them out and and put new ones in.
I had to remove a few rivets from the skin to be able to get my hand behind the spar with the bucking bar, but I made it work.
I was able to use the lightening holes to get in with the bucking bar and re-hit the rivets in the skin that weren't set well. Then I noticed it. The biggest mistake to date.
The front and rear spar have an top and bottom, In my rushing to "catch up" from my previous mistake with the primer I didn't read the directions well and just as I was finishing the last few rivets on the skin I realized the orientation of one of them is wrong. The arrow pointing to the notch in the rear spar should be on the bottom of the HS, the circles around the unriveted rivets should be on the top of the HS, and the arrows pointing to the 2 holes in the web of the front spar next the the 9 rivet pattern should be on the bottom and they are on the top.
I emailed vans about this, from the way I see it I can cut the rear spar and flip the notch, this will also require me to dimple the rivet holes in the skin and un-dimple the corresponding holes on the other side. basically making the top the bottom.
Option 2. Drill out the rear spar, flip it, and move the holes in the skin as described above.
Options 3. Try to locate the position of the mounting holes on the front spar and drill them.
Vans recommends I go with option 1. I think I might try option 3 first after I build the rear fuselage and use the mounting brackets as a guide as well as trying to measure and locate the holes. If this doesn't work I can always go with options 1 after. For now the HS is done and set aside.
Horizontal Stabilizer 1.5 Hours
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