After the incident during back riveting a couple of days ago, I set back out to complete the remaining skins on the elevators, survey the damage to the skin one more time, and keep making forward progress on the elevator. I was able to successfully back rivet the remaining portions of the three skins as well as the ribs and the cover plates. I’m getting pretty excited to wrap these up and move on to the trim tabs and ultimately finish the elevators and get on to the fuselage tailcone. I am also a bit apprehensive because it is just about time to start thinking about the wing kit. I will want to have that ordered fairly soon as the wait times for the kits can be a couple of months. If at all possible, the goal would be to minimize or eliminate the amount of time I spend waiting on the wings once I have the empennage finished up.
This is what the elevator skins look like when you do NOT miss the back riveting plate and destroy the skin. Pretty nice isn’t it?
One more from the other side. Overall, it is pretty easy work. The most difficult part is the bookkeeping of what you do and don’t rivet at this time. You need to leave open the spaces where the trim tab connections will ultimately be made as well as several other items to keep track of. Again, nothing difficult, just need to have a strong sense of situational awareness as you progress through each step.
Total time today = 2 hours
Total time empennage = 103.5 hours
Total time aircraft = 103.5 hours