Construction Log: Horiz. Stab. TOTAL TIME:
DATE DESCRIPTION OF WORK
TIME
1/22/2000
Laid out and cut out elevator cable relief.
Laid out the flange's elevator relief, drilled the pilot hole
on one side, and rough trimmed the edges. This doesn't look
quite right. The material is 2mm thick and they want the
flanges 3mm. That only leaves 1mm of the radius, which to me
seems a little thin. The drawings (construction and engineering)
call it out this way, but I am wondering if the 3mm offset should be
from the interior face of the web, instead of the exterior. I
guess I'll have to bug Zenith again.
1/23/2000
Finished the rear spar attachment, just in case I did it right.
1/30/2000
Zenith confirmed that their drawings where right. By the
way, if anyone out there is trying to decide which plane to
build, please consider this: Via email, Zenith has ALWAYS
responded by 9:30 AM the next business day after I submit
a question (my questions are always sent after-hours or on
weekends). Not too shaby!
After seeing some specialty tools for marking rivet lines that
were close to an edge, I determined that the special tool was
just a cheap compass. Well, I have a thumb-screw adjustable
compass already in my toolbox so I decided to give it a go. WOW,
did that save a lot of time! Laid out the rivet line on the
rear spar doublers in about 15 seconds!
Laid out the center line on the spar and the doublers.
Drilled and Clecoed the 3 outboard rivets in each of the doublers.
Drilled and Drilled and Drilled and Clecoed the rear spar
attachment to the spar. See photo log for... well... a photo.
2/1/2000
Laid out and drilled the top doubler on the rear spar.
2/2/2000
Drilled bottom doubler to rear spar.
Laid out center line on front spar and doublers.
Laid out rivet line on front spar doublers.
I am noticing that I really am getting better at building.
I really expect to have a very nice looking plane when I am
done even though the front will look better then the back :-)
2/8/2000
Just so you won't worry any more, I drilled the spar, doublers,
and rear attachment to the called for #20s now that I have the
needed clecos.
2/16/2000
Made front spar attachment jig after making 3 "practice" jigs.
Laid out and drilled 3 outboard rivets on top and botton
spar doublers.
Drilled front spar attachment doublers to spar.
Nice to be working again, but unfortunately, it looks like
bad weather is heading back our way. Hopefully I will get the
front spar done this week.
2/27/2000
Drilled the front spar attachment to the spar.
Drilled the front spar attachment to the doublers.
Laid out the rivet pitch on the spar doublers, now that I know
where the attachments will be. Wait a minute, this doesn't
look quite right. Damn it! The attachments, though perfectly
spaced are OFF CENTER by 5mm. Admitting my mistake was easy
(publicly admitting my mistake was tougher), but not good enough.
I had to know what went wrong. I verified the center line on the
spar and it looked good. Oops, there's the problem. The jig that
I was having such fun with had a MIS-MARKED CENTER LINE. This
caused the attachment doublers to be off, which of course, caused
everything else to be off. Destroyed parts: Spar, 2 spar doublers,
2 attachment doublers and 2 attachments. I have decided to add
a mistakes section to this website.
4/14/2000
After a LONG break (hey, I had to plant my yard, build my 9 node
computer cluster, work, play with the kid, etc), I finally started
working again!
Drilled the doublers to the front spar.
Drilled the attach doublers/atachments to the spar.
Nice to be drilling again! Things went very smooth (but I guess
I have done this piece once before).
4/15/2000
Drilled the 4 center-most ribs to the front spar.
Most of the time was trying to figure out how to clamp
the rib in position, while still having enough room to
let it "bend" over so the drill can reach. A couple blocks
of wood, a couple chunks of board, a C-clamp and a square
were all rigged up into a fairly good jig.
Pictures to follow (I promise).
4/17/2000
Drilled the ribs to the rear spar. All went as expected.
Test fitted the spars and ribs as a complete assembly. Looked
good. There is a photo in the H-Stab photos.
4/30/2000
Drilled end ribs to front and rear spars.
Deburred rear spar and doublers. Primed.
Deburred rear spar attachment. Primed.
Deburred rear spar attachment shim. Primed.
5/1/2000
Riveted doublers, attachment, and shim to rear spar.
5/2/2000
Deburred all remaining h-stab skeleton and primed.
5/4/2000
Riveted doublers and attachments to front spar.
5/6/2000
Finished ritveting skeleton. Hey, isn't this a major
milestone for the horizontal??? What better way to
celebrate than to hang it up on the wall so I can
do the last little bit to finish the elevator!
5/6/2000-6/11/2000
Did a lot of little spurts that add up to about 4 hours.
Cut out the reliefs for the front attach brackets. They
still need cleaned up a little bit.
Drilled the bottom skin to the skeleton.
Test fit the front radius to the rib tips (no, this wasn't
the first time!). It looks tight, but I think the radius will
be pretty much in the right spot.
EAA Tech Counselor will be here the 18th.
6/18/00
EAA TECH COUNSELOR
James Williams, EAA Tech Couselor, came to check out my progress
and to help me out of a bind that I got myself into. (more later)
Found a rib flange that over lapped a spar cap on the horizontal.
(its now later!)Told me how to fix a hole I put in a rib flute. This
problem was compounded by the fact that I also missed edge-distance on
it. (tisk-tisk!) More on this later.
Probably the best part of the visit was the Tech Counselor himself. Not
only did he help me on my plane, but he TOOK ME FLYING!!! He has a VERY
beautiful Kitfox . He even gave me some
stick time! VERY VERY nice plane!
Not only that, but while we were flying, we landed an an airport where his
buddies hanger. Needless to say, his friend gave me a ride too. He had a
Kolb . That's a different type of bird,
let me tell ya! Its just hard to top a day like this!
Did I mention that James let me borrow some tools, too? What a guy!
6/25/00
Well, I still haven't fixed my flute problem. Here is what happened. I
carefully measured where the ribs should be and laid out a rivet line on the
skin. I looked at the drawings/construction manual to find the pitch, which
was 70. Laid them out, and drilled through the skin and through the rib in
one fatal blow. Lesson learned (with help from James), never drill through the
skin and ribs at the same time (pilot hole one of them), and N E V E R drill
blind.
Laid out and drilled pilot holes on the top skin for the front spar.
Drilled top skin to spar (still as pilot holes).
Laid out and drilled rivet line on the outside of the rib flange, which
had to be about pitch 60 to miss the flutes.
Attached the top skin to the skeleton with clecos in the front spar and clamps
on the rear. This is kind-of a trick because you have to be sure that you
have the skeleton as square as you had it on the botton skin (bottom skin not
attached).
Back drilled the rib flanges to the skin with a 12" long #40 bit. Basically, I
drilled my ribs to the skin from the inside out. The result is
no guessing, no measuring, no wondering...it IS in the middle of the flange and it
IS NOT hitting a flute. After doing this with outstanding success, I shall never
measure for the ribs again!
Just for a kick, I set my elevator up next to it. Got so excited that I set the
end caps on for a photo!
7/8/00
Drilled the top skin up to size.
Deburred and primed.
Riveted the skin to skeleton.
Doesn't seem like much, but it was (a lot of time and a major milestone!)
With exception of fiberglass tips, the horizontal is DONE!
thru 12/20/00
Trimmed the end ribs so they wouldn't hit the elevator on full down deflection.
Safetied the hinge.
Attached end caps.
Now, without exception of the fiberglass tips, the horizontal is DONE!
