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Finishing up the bottom skins

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RIVETING THE BOTTOM SKINS

We continue to inch closer and closer to finishing up the empennage. One rivet at a time. I think each rivet also makes the finish line seem farther away too. Such is life. But I have a phenomenal riveting partner that makes the time fly by. Time to finish up the bottom skins today.

Safety first! Put on that hearing protection.

We set up for another riveting session on the bottom skins of the empennage where they connect with the side panels. We followed the instructions by Van’s and riveted from the center line out towards the edges, which is making this a significantly easier task than anticipated.

BOTTOM SKINS TO THE SIDE PANELS

Once again, the technique of riveting from the center line of a large skin to the edges is proved to be sage advice. In the picture below, we got a clean line of rivets in with little extra effort.

The bottom skins attached to the side panels.

As for lessons learned, definitely get a riveting partner for these steps in the process. There is nothing heroic about designing and implementing your unique method of single person riveting in complicated situations. I’ve switched back and forth between using the rivet gun and holding the bucking bar, so it is nice to have someone who feels comfortable with either role. Whenever I feel nervous, I just remember that it wasn’t that long ago that I had ZERO experience with either device too.

Total time today – 1.5 hours
Total time empennage – 186.5 hours
Total time aircraft – 194.5 hours

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