With some assistance from my cousin (also a Pilot and A&P) we were able to start assembling the Horizontal Stabilizer. Getting the nose ribs in the skins was a bit of a pain, but that may have been due to my use of the straps vs the plywood cradle suggested in the plans. As other builders have commented, we needed a LOT of clecos to get the skin attached well. Basically a lot of “rinse and repeat” from this perspective and it was very nice to have another aviation enthusiast helping on the build. This is always the cool part where things are starting to look like real parts, vs the work on the spar and ribs.
We figured out how the stringers go together and got them inserted into the ribs without too much fuss. The remainder of the week was me match drilling one section at a time. As stated in the plans, just come up with a methodology to get everything correctly matched drilled.
This is also the point where you really need to have an angle drill or angle drill attachment in order to drill the holes on the front spar attachment bracket. I was personally hoping that my craftsman cordless angle drill would be sufficient, however it was still too big to access these holes. So an order for the appropriate tool is in and hopefully it will arrive shortly.
At this point I have match drilled all of the holes and once the attachment bracket is drilled, I can begin the process of deburring.