2.2 Hours
Construction begins with work on the horizontal stabilizer rear spar. Primarily using a Scotch-Brite wheel mounted in my drill press, I broke the edges and rounded the ends of HS-609PP. Even though “breaking the edges” just means to round them, I cringe when I see that term in the instructions.
A before and after shot of HS-609PP.
Once broken, I placed the HS-609PPs into the channel of HS-603PP and lined up the holes to check the fit. The instructions state that the faces should rest flat. If the curve of HS-603PP lifts HS-609PP, you have to file the edge of HS609-PP down until it will rest flush. I only had to remove a tiny big extra from one HS-609PP with my vixen file. After everything was in alignment, I match drilled HS-609PP to HS-603PP using a #30 drill.
Finally, I further enlarged the holes where two of the ribs attach to a #21. This is where I had my first error. Despite counting the holes several times, I still managed to drill the wrong hole on my first attempt. I realized it as soon as I backed the drill out. This shouldn’t be a problem though as I will just use a larger rivet in this hole.
- I accidentally drilled the 5th hole to a #21 instead of the 8th hole!
The HS rear spar clecoed.
