May 28, 2007
Horizontal Stabilizer
After riveting the ribs on I flipped the frame over. I debated long and hard how I wanted to tackle the skins. My main concern was keeping any twist out. I figured as long as I am on a flat table I should be fine. Here you see the bottom of the HS, The skin is lined up even with the trailing edge and even with the lateral tip rib ( you can see I did not rivet this rib on yet. The fiberglass tips actually sandwich between the skin and this rib, so I will wait until I am ready for that step before riveting this part).
To keep the skin down nice and tight, I used these bricks. Moved them forward as I drilled.  I asked the sonex talk group about correct drilling sequence in order to keep the skin tight. I came up with... starting in the center and drilling lateral, then moving forward. Not sure it makes a difference, but this is how I will continue to do it until told otherwise (with a good rationale, of course).
After drilling with the #40, I took everything off to check my holes. Dang! Lookiee there, right in the middle of the flange  We must be doing something right!   Put the skin back on and up drilled to #30 holes.  We went ahead and drilled the other bottom side also. I hate to admit this, but after checking hole and rib alignment on the other bottom skin, we went ahead and just drilled striaght to  # 30.
After all the deburring, I sprayed the inside skins with zinc oxide.
It really feels good riveting things together. Each time you set a rivet it looks more and more lilke an airplane part! You can see I riveted the trailing edge on the bottom.  I will NOT rivet the trailing edge on the top side until the elevator is finished... I guess you need it to determine the hinge location on the trailing edge flange (on the HS).
We flipped it over. Now looking at the TOP of the HS. Pulled down and placed some weight on the L side of the skin. It looks like everything will line up ok. The above weight is not enough, my dad has more bricks at his house we will use. As you can see, we placed the weights on  two pieces of plywood.  Finished for today...