Brief Description: Started on the empennage front spar.
This morning I started working on the front spar for the empennage. I first clecoed the spar channels (HS-702) and reinforcement angles (HS-710 & HS-714) together and match drilled the proper holes saving some for later as noted in the manual.
Next I took everything apart and tapered the ends of the reinforcement angles to the proper dimensions on the bench grinder using the scotchbrite wheel. This took some time and I went slow to not heat up the angles beyond what I could hold on to. They turned out nice and look pretty sharp for doing it by hand.
My neighbor Don and his wife Janet stopped by for a few minutes tonight to visit. Don is a true aviation expert having flown B-47's in the Air Force and retiring from a major airline as captain a few years ago. He has worked on quite a few restoration projects and currently owns several airplanes and will be a great resource to look over my work and make suggestions for improvement. I hope he stops by often.
Don noticed the length of the rear spar rivets as being shorter than standard and I told him about Van's saying they were OK for this application. He was still a little suspect and I will do more investigation just to double check, but I have read several places where they will be fine. This is an important component, as most are on an airplane and I will make sure it is right. He did find one other rivet that was not squeezed properly and that will be replaced. Thanks for the input, Don.
