St Patricks day parade

Monday 17th March 2008 (8hr 15min)

Drilled out and re-riveted faulty rivets from R606pp reinforcement plate, R902 spar, R904 rib, R405PD. Set up for riveting right elevator skin and spar. Riveted right and left elev skins to top of E902 right and left spars. Attached right and left elevator counterbalance assembly to E902 right and left spars. Assembled HS front and rear spars.

Our national holiday and what am I doing? making a plane! Well, that is my kind of holiday. Contrary to the public stereotype, I don't drink much and I drink Guiness only rarely - usually when I feel called upon to prove that I AM Irish.

The long nose yoke was able to reach three to four rivets either side of the hinge openings in the elevators. That left only about a third of the holes along the bottom of the spar to be pop riveted.

Rudder Assembly

Monday 19th Nov 2hr 10min

Assembled rudder and match-drilled skins to ribs, spar and trailing edge. Trimmed rudder brace Fitted and match-drilled rudder brace.

The manual suggests that you prime and rivet the stiffeners to the skins before assembling the rudder to match-drill the remaining parts. However, I am delaying priming so I clecoed back on the stiffners in order to prevent bowing of the skins. There sure are a lot of holes in this thing.

Trimming the rudder brace was easy and it fitted without any problem. The Orndorff video shows a trim line etched in to the sides of the brace but these have been replaced with twohalf-holes in the edges which you join up with a line, just like on the skin stiffeners. There are also a lot more pre-punched holes in this kit. For instance the R405PD rudder horn to R710 rudder brace holes are now pre-punched in the horn.