(page 09-09) All buttoned up.........                   

All of the rivets are in the stabilator, including the ones in the dreaded piano hinge for the anti-servo tabs.  Of the hundreds of rivets that went into the skin and hinge, only a few required that I run a #30 bit through the hole.  I am constantly amazed at how well everything fits.  Van's deserves their number one position among kit makers.

As soon as I attach the counter weights to this thing, I'll hang it from the rafters and start on the tail cone.  That'll be the bulkiest thing I've built, and I have no idea where I'll store it.  I've still not opened the box for the fuselage kit, much less inventoried all the parts, so space is about to become a pressing issue.

Speaking of Van, one of my missions at OSH this year will be to get down on bended knee and beg him to switch to the new fuel injected version of the Rotax.  I get a sick feeling when I think of spending that much money on something with carburetors.  I thought my days of syncing carbs were over when I mothballed my CB750 Honda.  Word is they will not offer the new engine because of packaging problems with the external alternator and the additional $$$.  I would happily pay the difference.

(page 09-08) More tail....                             

.....Always a good thing.  All the ribs for the stabilator lined up, within reason, when I trial fitted the skin.  I used my usual method of alignment -- sticking the awl into each rivet hole near the box spar and working my way out toward the leading or trailing edge, thus lining everything up.  All holes accepted clecos top and bottom.  I have mixed feelings about leaving the Blue Plastic Hell on before riveting.  With skin trial fitted, I discovered my one error -- I had countersunk one wrong hole in the box spar.  This, of course, meant that I had to un-cleco everything and fix it.  A minor problem.

With all of the uncertainties regarding the stabilator vanquished, I got to my favorite activity -- using the pneumatic rivet puller.  After about 50 rivets it quit working.  My favorite tool quit working!  Reading the instructions (for the first time) I noticed that I was supposed to periodically disassemble the nose piece and clean the jaws.  Apparently, each time it pulls a rivet it creates tiny chips which build up on the jaws.  Cleaned it all out, spent 35 minutes searching for a small spring that sprang out during disassembly, re-assembled, everything worked fine.  The tail cone is next, then on to the fuselage kit (still not inventoried and long past the 30-day window for having missing parts replaced free).

(page 09-08) When space is this tight....                         

....you use any available surface.  Imagine, a table with 436 horsepower.  You can probably see from this picture why I haven't unpacked and inventoried the fuselage kit yet.  I'm beyond the 30-day deadline for identifying missing parts, so I'll have to trust that Van's sent everything I paid for.  The first kit was missing only a couple of bolts, so I can live with that.

I finially figured out what I was supposed to do with drilling the piano hinges.  The plans call for temporarily clecoing the left and right hinges to the inside of the right skin for match drilling some of the holes.  Turns out, some of the holes in the skin are irregularly spaced, so the drilling template can't be used for these.  I'd like to volunteer to re-write this portion of the plans in order to save other builders some frustration.  On second thought, maybe it's immediately obvious to everyone but me what's supposed to be done.  I haven't heard other builders complain about this step on the forums.

(page 09-06) Let there be light.....                           

The stabilator skeleton is almost finished, and I'm surprised at how light it is.  As I opined earlier, the spar box (or is it box spar) is the most complicated, difficult-to-build thing so far (no doubt, I'll look back at this and laugh as I get further into the build) .  Lots of squeezed, counter sunk rivets.  The plans have to be studied fairly carefully in order to determine the correct locations of various things.  Most of the pulled rivets had to be done by hand, as the snout of the pneumatic puller (my favorite tool) was too bulky to fit.  By the time I'm finished, my forearms will resemble Popeye's (now where's my spinach!).  Unless you're of a certain age, you won't get that reference.

I did manage to kill my first part -- one half of the piano hinge for the stabilator anti-servo tab.  It only cost $5.00 to re-order, but may hold me up.