Began mounting the horizontal stabilizer - 8 hours

Today was the day. I need to mount the horizontal stabilizer. This was a part of the build I was dreading as I know how frustrating it can be getting these holes drilled. I haven’t even started and I’m already stressed out. First things first, I need to make sure everything is level. Working on an uneven concrete floor…Not an easy task. But using a jack and shims….I got everything right.

I measured center on the fuse aft deck using the callipers and drew a black line. I continued the line up the aft bulkhead and center runs through the center of the tooling holes. So far…Perfect.

The firewall and main spar are perfectly level, however the aft end of the fuse is just ever so slightly out. The level bounces between 0.00 deg and 0.05 deg. Despite my best efforts to have it perfectly 0, when riveting there can very slight movement that can eventually get locked in. Honestly its not a huge deal. We are talking about 1/16” out over a distance of 8’. I think I can live with that. 

 

Next I set up a laser level down the longitudinal axis if the aircraft. Positioning the level from a center point on the firewall, to a center point on the end of the aft deck. The true center of the aircraft is just a tiny bit (1/32" to 1/16") to the line drawn on the aft deck. 

  I am now ready to start final fitting and positioning the horizontal stabilizer. Placing the stabilizer on the aft deck. I fist centered and clamped the rear spar of the HS to the vertical bars WITH the 3/16" spacers (Using 3/16" drill bits). I also placed the F-798 shims under the forward HS spar.

Next I lightly clamped the forward spar to the aft deck. Now came a series of measurements from the firewall to the tips of the HS. This sounds simple enough but I must have measured a million times from a number of different points. Making tiny adjustments to the HS, remeasure. Check measure again. so on and so on. 

 

 

I'm now locked in and ready to drill. Very carefully and very slowly I marked the spar flange and started to drill.  

 

At this point I notice that the mounting hole on the left side of the aircraft will come close to the edge of the spar flange. The edge distance on the longerons and H-710B angle underneath are excellent. 
There's not really much I can do...Twisting the HS for better edge distance on the spar flange will mean that the HS is now out of square. I don't know what Van's Aircraft will say....Its Saturday and tech support is closed. I'm beginning to thing that I will need to add a double of some sort to help. Next I removed the HS from the fuselage and continued on drilling the inboard mounting holes. Once the inboard mounting holes are located, I then placed the shims underneath and marked the new holes.

 While everything is still drilled to #40....Now is a good time to work on those doublers. If they are in fact needed...Then at least everything will be drilled and reamed as an assembly. I hate to think how tricky they would be to do much later. I went to the basement and found that I had some extra 0.187" material. Using the router I created a radius on the doubler material allowing it to nest to the HS spar flange. 

After cutting the doublers to size I then marked holes to them using the #40 drill size. (If your wondering why I made two doublers L and R. It's simply for symmetry). 

 Now I very slowly started opening up each hole from #40 to #30. Then to #21. Getting this precise is a pain as the holes I have good access to are the two outboard mounting holes, not the two inboard. After much work and carefully drilling...It was time to ream the 4 holes to final size (3/16"). And it turned out very well.

 

So on the left side, the bolt hole is close to the edge...I have an edge distance of 9/32"

So the question of the day is "will it be ok? or will I need the doubler?". Calling Van's tech support on monday morning gave me the answer I was looking for. The answer was both.....It will likely be ok...but having the doubler installed will be a great peace of mind that it will be very strong. 

So that is what I will do. Glad I fabricated it when I did. 

 

Prepping the horizontal stabilizer for mounting - 4 hours

 On initial fitting the horizontal stabilizer. I notice that the F-711C vertical bars interfere slightly with the flanges on the HS-00005 ribs. This is a bit of a head scratch-er on how best to handle this. I am reluctant to remove material from the F-711C vertical bars, but trimming the flanges are near impossible. Well....I ended up doing a little of both.

 First I decided to chamfer the aft outside edge of the vertical bars. It soon became apparent that alone won't be enough without removing lots of material.

I then started in on the impossible task of trimming the flanges. To do this I cut a piece of 0.016" scrap material and carefully slipped it under the flanges.

After a lot of filing with a tiny file...I finally managed to remove the material. Keeping the shims under the flanges, I can then use 3M scotchbrite to buff the cut edges. After masking off the piece, a coat of primer...Ready to start mounting.

 

Preping the aft deck for mounting the horizontal stabilizer - 2 hours

 Before I mount the horizontal stabilizer I need to mark out the complete outline of the F-718 longerons and F-710B angle on the top of the F-714 aft deck. Once the outline is made. I marked the mounting location of the bolts in red. They are to be centered in the exposed flange of the 3/4x3/4x.125 longeron. The dimension works out to be 7/16" from the outside edge of the longeron.  

Installed the side steps - 4 hours

 I arranged for my buddy mike to come over and give me a hand bucking the side step rivets. This is best done with two people in my opinion. I installed the steps and then made an outline of the flange on the fuselage. I then buffed the mating area with 3M scotchbrite to help with adhesion.

Before Mike came over...I mixed up some proseal (Oh dear god I hate proseal). And then I applied it to the side step flanges and then installed with clecos. Mike arrived and we went to work riveting. Its messy and stinky work but we got it done. 

I will need to mix up more pro-seal eventually to properly fillet/chamfer the flanges and fill in some gaps under the side step/fuselage. I will add that to the to-do list. After mike left...I could then install the bolts in the UHMW block-step supports. Its never fun installing bolts in these as technically torque bolts in the plastic support blocks. 

Paint touch-ups - 5 hours

 I needed to touch up the interior cabin side rail. While polishing the paint I rubbed some of the corners down to much exposing the aluminum. So, I masked off the interior to isolate the right side side rail, re-prepped and re-painted the side rail. As I have a can of paint all mixed. I ended up sanding and spraying a couple pieces again.

Installing the fuel selector and gascolator. Installed landing gear bolts - 5 hours

 Now the interior painting is complete. I can start the process of starting to install interior cabin components permanently. First I chose to install the fuel selector and the Aerolab gascolator. 

To install the gascolator to the cabin floor, I used blue thread-lock on the #6 screws. 

 Now came the big task of drilling and installing the AN3 bolts for all of the landing gear weldments. This ends up being a tedious process. Having to drill up from #40 to #30, to #21, finally reaming to 3/16". Lets not talk about trying to remove all the shavings that like to stick between the layers of the aluminum. 

The finish kit arrives! - 5 hours

 The call came today that the finish kit is being delivered. A very exciting day and I will be very busy this winter.

I started in on inventory and inspection. I was missing a few pieces. The main roll bar and 1 hardware bag is back ordered. 1 hardware bag was missing. The backordered parts hurt a bit, but given the issue surrounding covid it's totally understandable. 

One item that I notice while inspecting the engine mount, One of the mounting holes seems to be a bit to the side of the engine frame tube. 

All other mounting holes are looking good. I called Van's tech support since I didn't know if this was going to be an issue. Simply put...this is fine and is to be expected. When welding the engine mount the welding process makes the mount move with the uneven heating and contraction. These tubes are oversized to account for the potential movement. The pilot holes are drilled on a jig after welding so they are in the spot they need to be. I just need to open the holes eventually to AN6. Vans said, I might need to jog the hole over just a tad to ensure clearance of the AN6 bolt with the side of the tube.