Horizontal stab started / first build day
Today was the first build day. It was great fun. I have always loved fabrication, what better way to kick things off than to fabricate the brackets that hold the HS on the tail of the plane (translation: critical for structural integrity). So, I fabricated the HS attach brackets. They came out exactly as shown on the plans. I also fabricated the inboard HS rib shims. I sure am glad I have a decent band saw. It made these cutting chores very easy and allowed me to just enjoy the process. Most of the rest of the day, construction wise, was composed of match drilling the main and rear HS spar doublers and outboard elevator hinge brackets and deburring and straightening the HS ribs. Those brackets sure are pretty, being powder coated. I found that I had to run a much smaller drill bit (by hand) through the holes before I could even get a cleco in them for drilling. I was also a little surprised at how much material I had to take off of the spar doublers to get the edges smooth. I first hit them with a file in the vice. They came out looking good and I don’t see any problems with it. It took me at least three hours to debur all of the ribs on the scotchbrite wheel. Not that they were very bad, but maybe this is what makes my airplane better than a factory Cessna. I suspect that many people don’t spend quite this much time on these ribs. They were actually very clean and straight as they came.
Also today: I heard an eighteen wheeler pull up in front of the house and looked out to see what was up. It was my new air-compressor delivery (on this huge tractor trailer). The driver jumped out of the cab and announced that he didn’t have a lift gate. So there was no way to get the 400lb. compressor off of the truck. I had specifically requested (and paid for) “lift gate service”. It was within thirty feet of the garage, but after a few calls back to “dispatch”, I had to watch it pull away for another try maybe tomorrow on a truck with a lift gate. Bummer.
A little later, UPS showed up with the air line filters and dryer unit that I had ordered. I spent some time this evening getting that equipment installed. It is pretty cool. I had always had issues with air filtering when spraying paint. No more. I suspect that there are some auto body shops that don’t have this much filtering on their lines. I’m planning on shooting all of the paint on the plane with this air source, so I wanted it super clean.
Also note that this is the first posting with build time. Total time will now be summarized at the top of the main page.
