18 Jun 2005 - 6.5hrs
In order to build the horizontal stabilizer, I needed to build a second table and put the two of them together to handle the length of the project.


19 Jun 2005 - 1.25hrs
Prepare for the H.S...


21 Jun 2005 - 1.25hrs
Start assembly...


22 Jun 2005 - 2.3hrs
24 Jun 2005 - 2.75hrs
26 Jun 2005 - 6.5hrs
13 Jul 2005 - 2hrs
19 Jul 2005 - 4.25hrs
22 Jul 2005 - 2.5hrs
25 Jul 2005 - 0.5hrs
27 Jul 2005 - 1.75hrs



28 Jul 2005 - 3.2hrs
Time for disassembly, deburring, cleaning. I'm using pieces of safety wire looped through holes on the ribs with ink written on masking tape to label each part. Works okay as long as you don't get the tape too soaked in the denatured alcohol.


29 Jul 2005 - 1.5hrs
Dimpling...

30 Jul 2005 - 4.5hrs
Priming interior parts, dimpling skins.

02 Aug 2005 - 0.75hrs
Dimpling skins.

03 Aug 2005 - 0.8hrs
Finish dimpling skins.

04 Aug 2005 - 1.0hrs
Priming skins.

18 Aug 2005 - 2.0hrs
19 Aug 2005 - 1.25hrs
20 Aug 2005 - 1.5hrs
Start to rivet parts together. I'm attempting to flush rivet all of the upper skin rivets. I'll have to blind rivet a few spots on the lower skings since there is no way to get a bucking bar inside.

21 Aug 2005 - 2.8hrs
*sigh* Remember, read twice, drill once? Well, double check the orientation of your parts before the final rivet, too. I put the aft spar attach bracket on upside down, and completely riveted it. I wasted 1.5 hours taking it back off and re-riveting it the correct way.


10 Sep 2005 - 4.15hrs


11 Sep 2005 - 5.4hrs
12 Sep 2005 - 1.65hrs
13 Sep 2005 - 2.0hrs
15 Sep 2005 - 0.25hrs
19 Sep 2005 - 1.15hrs
20 Sep 2005 - 1.0hrs
22 Sep 2005 - 1.5hrs
23 Sep 2005 - 1.8hrs
11 - 23 Sep - finished assembling horizontal stabilizer as much as I can do at this point. Since I am flush riveting, and you don't finish drilling the aft spar until after the elevator is finished (for final hinge alignment), I had to leave about 4 rivets on the top skin undone so I could lift up the skin to countersink the aft spar holes after they are drilled.
I had one kinda icky oops - I circled it in blue in the pics. I was having a hard time riveting that one rivet, and ended up redoing it several times. I cracked the skin slightly, about 1/8 of an inch. I think I can just stop drill it with a very small drill bit and just fill it in during the paint phase. I'm going to ask my tech counselor what he thinks about it.


Off to the elevator section now. I need to figure out how to deal with the flush rivets along the spar, or just use universal rivets here.

30 Apr 2006 - 2.5hrs
03 May 2006 - 2.3hrs
04 May 2006 - 2.75hrs
Back to finish the horiz stab. Figured out how to flush rivet the final rivets. I drilled the skins and aft spar, dimpled the skin and countersunk the aft spar before fitting the hinge. I then riveted the spar to the ribs, and then the bottom skin to the spar, and the top skin to the spar where there isn't a hinge. Since the hinge goes under the spar (in other words, skin on top, spar in the middle, and the hinge on the bottom), you don't have to do anything special to the hinge, and can use the holes drilled in the spar as guide holes to drill the hinge.
Please see the elevator section for more details of mating the elevator to the horizontal stabilizer.
Horiz stab is now finished!