Got My Registration Number

I wrote a little script last week that searched the FAA website for available 3 character N numbers.  Most of the available ones were awkward to pronounce, but there were a few that I liked.  I just got notice today that my first choice (N4VR) has been reserved.

Horizontal Stabilizer Structure Fully Assembled

After fluting and straightening HS-405, I match drilled it to the rear spar in preparation for drilling it in conjunction with the skin.

Here are the two HS-405 ribs drilled to the skin (the ribs in the center with the lightening holes).

If you haven’t seen these LockJaw vise clamps, you should really check them out.  Instead of the typical vice grips that have an adjusting screw that adjusts the jaw separation when closed, these have an adjusting screw that adjusts the clamping pressure.  Once you set the clamping pressure you want, you can clamp material of various thicknesses with no further adjustment.  I really dig it when somebody creates a clever tool like this.

Here is the HS-404 nose rib drilled to the skin.  Getting this matched drilled to HS-405 was kind of a bitch.  Van’s recommends using an angle drill, but because of the tight fit, I couldn’t get it remotely perpendicular to the front flange of HS-405.  I ended up using a 12″ #30 drill bit from below and flexed the drill bit enough to get perpendicular to the flange.

This looks a lot like the picture above, but here, the skins have all been match drilled to the internal structure.  The skins are ready to come off and get deburred and dimpled, but I’m beat.  I built these benches a couple of inches taller than the plans since I’m 6′ 4″, but I now wish I had gone up a few more inches.  I spent a lot of the night hunched over and my back is killing me.

Horizontal Stabilizer Skeleton

I’ve clecoed the horizontal stabilizer skeleton together for the first time and match drilled all rib to spar holes except the holes that attach the middle pair of rivets to the rear spar.  These will get drilled out to #21 later since those are attached with blind rivets.

Another shot so that you can see the rest of my messy garage.  I really need to finish moving the rest of the crap from when this was a wood shop around to our new shed.

The skin has been clecoed on to fit the inner ribs (HS-404 and HS-405).  I’m pretty impressed with how quickly this structure has taken shape.  I only started working on this 3 days ago, and it’s already starting to resemble a real airplane part.  This is pretty misleading though since all of the skin holes have to be drilled, everything has to be completely taken apart and deburred, skin and spar holes need to be dimpled, parts have to be primed and then clecoed back together and then finally riveted.  I might be 10-15% of the way through the horizontal stabilizer at this point.

By the way, the air powered cleco tool in the foreground is awesome.  I found some guy selling several hundred of these surplus on eBay and I was able to pick this up for $25.  I highly recommend getting one even if you have to pay several times that price.  You’re going to be putting a lot of clecos in and out during the course of the project, and I’ve heard enough other people complain that it’s brutal on your hands.  With this tool, it’s as easy as squeezing a trigger.

Front Spar

Here are the two front spar reinforcing bars.  The ends of these needed to be tapered and rounded, and then bent to 6º which matches the sweep of the front spar.  The outer portion of the flanges came pre-cut which is a nice improvement over the kits that were shipped just a few years ago.

Here is the front spar clecoed together.

This looks just like the last shot except the difference is that the spar has been dimpled and the spar reinforcing bars have been countersunk for the four center rivets.  I believe the vertical stabilizer’s front spar mounting bracket attaches here which is why these need to be flush.

Rear Spar

I finished smoothing out the second spar reinforcing bar and clecoed them in place in preparation for drilling all the holes to full size.


My friend Andre stopped by tonight after our EAA 338 meeting at KRHV and got this shot of me drilling the holes out to full size.


The first completed component.  This is the center bearing for the elevator horns.  This has to get match drilled, primed, and riveted together before it can be match drilled to the spar.

Getting Started

It took me a little longer to finish the kitchen work than I thought (and I’m still not totally done), but I don’t need the garage anymore to finish that, so I can get started on the kit finally!  I started by smoothing down one of the two spar reinforcing bars for the horizontal stabilizer’s rear spar.  I probably spent 1.5 hours on this, but most of that time was spent experimenting with different tools and techniques.  The second spar reinforcing bar only took me about 30 minutes.