ATTACHED THE VERTICAL STABILIZER
Let’s get it out of the way. It’s a terrible pun. I own that. But I also own an airplane that has BOTH the horizontal and vertical stabilizers attached to the tailcone! At the same time! I am pretty excited about this. I am having a lot of fun watching this whole section come together. I have read numerous other builder logs and I fully appreciate that later in the build, assembling pieces is not so much fun. I choose to enjoy it right now! I have attached the vertical stabilizer. It just feels good to say.
The details are a bit trickier. I was amazed at how few builder logs mention the tight quarters of the various nuts and bolts during this attach session. I was constantly contorting my hands and wrenches in ways that I consider abnormal and at times downright painful. It all went together just fine in the end, but it took some doing. I did not do any final torque settings at this point because I know it will all come apart sooner than later for transportation purposes (if nothing else at least).
It was a lot of work for only one image. I will continue to work on getting better with the photography. I continue to be wrapped up in the minutiae of placing individual bolts. There is also a growing concern regarding the reality of needing to make progress on my wings. Completing this attach phase is not really helping me as I have no intention (or capability) of completing this build in my garage.
- Total time today – 1.5 hours
- Total time empennage – 208 hours
- Total time aircraft – 217 hours