VS priming prep
Hours: 3.6 | Posted in Vert. StabilizerGood day today; I keep wonderin what I’ve missed on the vertical stab because it’s coming together so fast. Countersunk, dimpled, and deburred as appropriate on the various parts today, as well as edge-finishing the skin. At the lower spar section where the rivets need to be flush on the forward side (the attach point to the fuselage), I dimpled the spar with the pneumatic squeezer and countersunk the doubler to receive the dimples. I also dimpled the spars at the skin-spar rivets, rather than countersinking as was done on the HS spars–because the VS spars are made of thinner stock (.032″). This is acceptable to dimple, according to the book, and test pieces nested find. The only countersinks in this assembly are on the spar doubler.
Followed that up with an etching session, rinsed and left the parts to dry overnight. Tomorrow morning I’ll prime if the weather is decent (clear sky at the moment).
First project visitor today; a fellow from church, sings in my choir, and an ATC manager. He’d heard through the grapevine that I am working on my PPL and we got to chatting after church about related things. He ended up stopping by after the service for a quick look at the project, then we went out to the airport (KRGK) for a flight around the local area in his recently purchased Bonanza. Nice plane, and a nice day to fly–a scattered layer around 4000′ MSL, good visibility, and calm & clear above the clouds.
This was Allison’s first time in a small plane, and she seems to have enjoyed it. She handled the turbulence better than I expected, and her only complaint was the noise level (not too worried about that, something that can be addressed with the headset technology available today). I had the chance to wear a pair of David Clark ANR headsets, much more comfortable and quiet than the loaner headsets at the FBO where I train…and I found out after we’d landed that they weren’t even turned on!
