Took extra day off work for Memorial Day weekend and spent most of it today working on the stabilator. Primed the aft spar in the morning. Hillary helped with some of the riveting and skin deburring this morning too. Nutplates were riveted along with the counterbalance brackets on both spars. Finished the skeleton by late afternoon and began working on the hinges and skins.
Pleased with the skeleton - fit together well. Also added the hinge brackets, washers and bolts. Torqued all the bolts and applied torque seal. Went well.
Only issue today was the drilling of the aft hinges for the AST attachment that I started late afternoon. I messed up the match drill guide on several holes as I put in on backwards. Ended up drilling several holes in the right hinge that were out of alignment. Decided to go ahead and finish the piece and I went back to add the holes that I messed up to see how bad of a situation I created for myself. Going to sleep on it, but there are only a few and I don't think the rivets will be any weaker with the few that have slightly larger holes on the hinge. There are many rivets on this piano hinge so I don't have any concerns about its strength. And given where it is on the stabilator, an extra drill hold will not be visable when the right AST is attached.
Painted bushings for forward hinge
Added nutplates and riveted counterbalance bracket
Assembled and riveted Stabilator Skeleton Assembly
