Left side HS complete - 6.5 hours

Finally I have some time on my hands so I dove into the project. I dimpled both horizontal stabilizer skins and made sure to not dimple the top side holes for the fairing. Starting with the left skin, I cleco'd then tried to rivet HS-707 to the top side of the skin. I found that it was difficult to get a solid platform to buck the rivets properly, so I cleco'd HS-706 and HS-708 to both top & bottom of the skin and found riveting HS-707 considerably easier.

I then cleco'd HS-702 (and re-cleco'd HS-708) into the structure and then ran into my next issue. I found that I did not have enough clearance with the blind rivet tool and had an angled LP4-3 rivet between HS-707/HS-708. I drilled out the rivet (which ended up a tad oblong) and then uncleco'd HS-708 to slightly bend it out of the way. (I reasoned that the slightly oblong hole is ok since Vans indicated to me in the past that connection of a rib to a spar was not a major structural item and considering I am using pop-rivets...it was acceptable to proceed.)  I proceeded with the construction as per the plans and ended up completing the riveting the left side horizontal stabilizer.

HS Front Spar complete - 1 hour

Seeing how my rivet selection was limited, I ordered a few varieties from Aircraft Spruce as well as the AN470AD5 rivets that I need to complete the HS front spar. I decided to use scrap to dial in the pneumatic squeezer and made short work of completing the outstanding rivets. I decided to replace one of the AD4 rivets with an AD5 rivet that was opposite the needed AD5 rivet purely for symmetry. Not needed, but it looks better.

HS Front Spar - 3 hours

Work has been quite crazy and not to mention I have also decided to put some time into skiing this winter, leaving little time for the RV build. Tonight I managed to get a little work done on the horizontal stabilizer. I dimpled all of the horizontal stabilizer parts (with the exception of the skins) and started to rivet. I have a tad bit of difficulty getting the pneumatic squeezer set up right. The trick is to set it so that it just under-squeezes the rivet and then it's an easy adjustment to get it dialed in. I think I may need to practice more and create a spread sheet showing the initial measurements for a given rivet size with a yoke/die combination.

The flush rivets were set without much trouble, however the first AN470AD4-7 rivet was squeezed too tight. I drilled the head of the rivet off and tried to pull the rivet out with pliers. Since the material was so thick, pulling out the rivet was impossible. I then had to drill the rivet out with a #30 bit, but resulting in an over sized hole. I need to use a larger -5 rivet. I completed the rest of the riveting with very good results. I only have one rivet that is set a bit close to the maximum (One rivet was not set to my liking, so I managed to do a good job drilling it out. Replaced with another AN470AD4-7 and bucked it...but did it a little too much. It's right on the line for spec)

Priming - Round 2 - 6 hours

I really hate priming. I've tried to avoid it as best I could but I needed to get a bunch of parts primed today. It was the worst weather for it -32deg C. I heated up the garage and set up. Started in on washing, scrubbing, rinsing, cleaning, priming. It is a very nasty process as the pro-Form Degreaser and the MEK are pungent. The 2-part epoxy primer is downright nasty stuff.  It burns your eyes and even with the respirator on, it burns the lungs a bit. It has a tenancy to seep into the house as well. I can't wait till summer when I can do this outside.

I finished priming the HS parts and the rudder parts. I have most of the elevator stiffeners primed too  

Elevator stiffeners and Elev. Trim Plate - 3 hours

I spent a bunch of time match drilling the elevator stiffeners to the skins. I also work away on the E-615PP trim access reinforcement plate. I dimpled the #6 screw holes, and then I set out to read up on what to do with the attachment holes for the corresponding K1100-06 nutplates. Obviously the rivets need to be the #426 flush type. I'm just not sure if I need to dimple or countersink. I see that a few folks have countersunk the reinforcement plate. Being that the material is 0.032" thick it is at the minimum recommended thickness for countersinking. I see that some people have opted for the oops rivet which keeps the smaller head but uses the larger #4 shank. I decided to countersink the reinforcement plate and then take it to my EAA meeting next week so I can have the guys take a look at it.

UPDATE - Well seems I made another mistake. I didn't quite understand that the oops rivet substitution that the Vans manual describes, and other folks have used is to replace the 426AD3-3.5 rivet that is called for with a NAS1097AD3-3.5 rivet.

I had it in my head to use an NAS1097AD4-X rivet which is wrong! I had countersunk this piece too deep. Now to start again!

Worked on Rudder strips and VS Spar - 4 hours

I put in a decent day on the plane. I made the R-918 attach strips. It took a bit of time to fit them. I was careful to check and recheck fit to ensure that I had proper edge distances. This is one part that could cause some issue with the forward end. After all was said and done, the attach strips turned out well.

I then worked on cleaning up the edges on the R-710 horn brace. I was please will all the edge distances as well. It paid off to heed other builders warnings to not cut too much off on this part.

I then worked on the new VS-803PP spar and VS-808PP doubler.