I put in quite a bit of time today, but I’m not entirely sure that I got where I needed to be. I am extremely happy with the trailing edge, but I think I need some additional guidance on the leading edge. I rolled the edges as Van’s described and did my best to make them meet up naturally, but even when I did I still have some minor pillowing in between the rivets. It’s not an extreme, but any pillowing is still bad at this point. Or at least I’m led to believe. I’ll investigate tomorrow morning and see if I have to drill out all of those rivets before I move on. I know I’m being a perfectionist but I think that building an aircraft is the right place for that to come out.
Looking good on the side of the double flush rivets. I’m happy with how this turned out. A couple of places where the back rivet set made a few deeper impacts than I would like but those are far from game changers.
I’d like to draw your attention to two key things:
- Just look at that razor edge on the rudder trailing edge! I am rather proud of this. I have seen some pretty wavy and unstable looking results from other builders, but this is just aluminum poetry right here.
- I have a TON of crap in my garage, but at least I’m self-aware. Judge me if you want to. Have fun.
Total time today = 3 hours
Total time empennage = 40.5 hours
Total time aircraft = 40.5 hours