I was able to finish up the Horizontal Stabilizer ribs and dimple the rest of the skins. I pulled the wire through and now I just have to apply the skins and make sure everything fits again. It's feeling like déjà vu, cleaning, degreasing and priming the elevator parts.. one of my least favorite activities of the build process, but necessary. At least now I'm getting a streamlined process down.
I primed the elevator parts and let them dry for a day. Came back to it and started riveting! This assembly is definitely a bit more complex and took a bit more time to study the instructions. On the swing arm assembly, there's a hard to reach rivet right next to the bracket. You'll see that one missing in the photo. I figured I just get some small M2.5 hex bolts and stack them about a quarter inch until it is flush with the nose of the rivet gun, then give it a pull. Worked like a charm! I did find some discrepancies in the instructions with rivet sizes, seems the descriptions of the rivet sizes are different and different parts provided in the kit than referenced in the instructions. The description in the instruction says it is a 3.2x13.6mm Alu Domed Rivet, but the actual rivet size received with the part number in the kit is 3.2x12mm. Additionally, the instructions say to use 4.8 x 12mm rivets HW-RIV-164-X-X-0, but the kit for elevator parts only includes 4.8 x 15mm rivets HW-RIV-165-X-X-0. I made sure that there weren't any other locations needing 4.8mm rivets and went ahead and used those. And of course, while feeling like I was on a role, fate seemed to occur. While torquing the bolt on the swing arm assembly, the bolt actually snapped off. Now I have to source another AN3-13A bolt and take another look at the torque required. It's ok, I'm sure it's not going to be the last 'oops' moment and I just look at the new shop sign from EAA - "Keep Calm and Build the Plane." ;-) I also ran into an issue with the bracket that connects the swing arm to the ribs not being aligned. I checked with TAF and they said to just drill up a size and use a 4.8mm rivet. Seemed to do the trick. On another note, I did add a tab with a chart for my hours by category. Comments are closed.
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