Week 1: Empennage

We arrived at the hangar early and began by cleaning up and finishing our practice kits. We also took time to hone additional skills that might come in handy, such as drilling out rivets. Finally, we felt brave enough to start on our kit. We decided to take it slow, letting our nerves and excitement settle.

We clecoed, a cleco is a clamping device that fits into the drilled holes of the parts that hold two or more pieces together, and match-drilled the front and back spars of the Horizontal Stabilizer.

We stopped there since we needed to fabricate a hinge part and thought it was a good stopping point for the day.

We didn’t spend much time at the hangar today. Instead, we focused on fabricating the hinge bracket for the front spar of the Horizontal Stabilizer. After careful measurements and double-checking our work, we unfortunately discovered one error that caused the bracket to fall short of the required specifications. We ordered replacement angle material to fabricate a new hinge bracket and decided to take the rest of the day off to regroup and evaluate how we could improve.

Unfortunately, this was another challenging day. As we pulled the parts needed for the next step, we realized we hadn’t received the correct part. This discovery was frustrating and disheartening, as we’d hoped to make significant progress. However, it prompted us to pause and have a broader discussion about the problems at hand and what we could do to improve.

We realized that “close enough” isn’t good enough when it comes to identifying and verifying parts. For example, HS0005 is not the same as HS-905 (nose ribs), even if they are packaged together and have similar names. This mistake taught us the importance of double-checking every detail, no matter how small it may seem. We decided to re-inventory the kit by meticulously checking and identifying all the parts. This process revealed two part naming discrepancies and missing rivets. While it was disappointing to find these issues, we’re grateful to still be within the 30-day grace period and have emailed Van's for replacement parts, ensuring we can get back on track soon.

After a recap and a breather, we identified several areas for improvement:

• I need to speak up more often.

• We need to slow down.

• We can’t make assumptions.

With these adjustments in mind, we tackled the next step, skipping over anything requiring the missing nose ribs. We fabricated a shim for the inner main ribs, straightened them, and clecoed them into place. We decided to stop here and start again fresh the next morning.

We arrived at the hangar early with a full day planned. While Sam was setting up the computer, I reviewed the directions and drawings. I noticed something didn’t seem right with the orientation of the innermost ribs. Before proceeding with match-drilling, we reviewed the plans and corrected the orientation. After match-drilling the main ribs, we reached a point where we couldn’t continue without the missing parts.

We set the Horizontal Stabilizer aside and moved on to the next piece of our Empennage: the Vertical Stabilizer, the upright fin on the tail of the airplane. This time, we worked all the way to dimpling the skin. Dimpling involves creating small, precise indentations in the metal to allow flush riveting, which is crucial for maintaining the aerodynamic surface of the airplane. We stopped there, planning to dimple and countersink spars and ribs next time before starting the riveting process for the Vertical Stabilizer.