On to the Vertical Stabiliser!

Friday 28th March 2008 (1hr 45min)

Prepared & primed R710 rudder brace. Assembled VS skeleton & skin in blocks.

I seem to be jumping around quite a lot from one assembly to another. A prime example was this evening when I worked on one rudder piece before going on to the vertical stabiliser.

I avoided the previous mistake (not leaving enough edge distance on the R-710) and cut strictly along the line from one guide hole to the next. For sure, there are no edge distance issues this time! After prepping the edges and cleaning/etching, I applied two coats of primer. It was not worthwhile getting out the spray booth for just one part so I used a paint pad to apply the primer. My pal Byran is applying all his primer in this way and is very satisfied with the results. I could see brush marks in the brace after it dried so I think I will stick with spraying. In any case, part of the point in spraying the primer was to acquire good spray painting skills by the time I come to put final coat paint on visible bits such as the cockpit interior.

In assembling the VS skeleton, I departed slightly from the Vans manual (temporarily ignoring the big lesson from last weekend) and followed George Orndorff's method instead. George feels that leaving off the root ribs (both the VS-704 main rib and the VS-705 nose rib) to improve access for rivetting the VS702 main spar and VS-707 mid-span rib to the skins. This could be further improved by also leaving off the VS-706 tip rib except that solid rivets are called for to attach this to the tip of the VS-702 main spar. However, I was determined to stick to somebody's method if not Van's so I riveted the tip rib on as per George's video.