This weekend, I was able to finish off my vertical stabilizer. The last few items that I needed to install the conduit arrived, so I was able to get back to the Vertical Stabilizer and polish it off. Once I made the necessary attachment points for the conduit (and the the appropriate blind rivets to fasten it), it was quick work putting everything back together. I then needed to cleco the skin back on the VS. Not sure why I remember this being a bit easier the first time. Honestly I’m not sure how I was holding everything in the right place last time, but I did get the skin on. I’m sure an extra set of hands would have helped.
Riveting wasn’t bad, just took a while. Also the fact I kept needing to drill rivets out didn’t help, but you have to do what is necessary. I’m getting better at working the rivet gun as well as drilling out rivets. Of course towards the end of Saturday evening as I was drilling out a few rivets, I casually tried to brush away some of the shavings with my hand. Didn’t realize the head of one of the drilled out rivets had a large burr or something that was sticking up and acted like a razor blade. Ouch! Slice across three fingers on my left hand for my troubles. Won’t be the last of my injuries while I build this plane I’m sure!
Sunday morning after my flight lesson, back to riveting the skins and finishing up the last of the steps. Took me a few tries to find a good way to position the VS while I was setting rivets. Honestly most of the things I tried turned out to just be awkward. I think I finally started just resting it on the floor and that worked much better. Once it was all done, I put it above the garage doors for longer term storage. I’ll have to play with my tail camera and think of how I want to mount it in the fairing, but have some time before that step.
Timelapse video below: