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Buck's RV-8
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Date: 5-2-2008
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Number of Hours: 2.80
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Mounting HS
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The horizontal stabilizer has been mounted! I re-measured everything to make sure it hadn't moved overnight, then experimented with all sorts of methods to drill the four bolt holes in the forward spar of the horizontal stabilizer. They are a bit tough to get to. There's no room for an angle drill because of the C-clamp holding the forward spar. A 12-inch #40 drill bit works fine for the initial hole, and even a #30 is OK. Larger bits, however, don't bend nearly enough. After consulting with several friends who've built RV-8s, I mounted a small sanding drum in the Dremel tool and filed four small notches in the flange of the forward spar. This gave me enough room to reach the lower flange with a threaded drill extension (photo #1) and #12 bit, while still keeping the hole vertical. Tip: Pay close attention to the measurements on the drawings for these holes. The edge distances underneath are critical. I spent a long time measuring and marking the locations for these holes, and it paid off. They came out perfect.
The four bolts went in fine, but then I found it's also quite a challenge to tighten the nuts on the bottom side of these holes. There's not much room for tools AND your arm in there. It would be much easier without the top fuselage skin on. I need a kid with tiny hands or something.
Next, I checked the angle of incidence of the stabilizer, and drilled the holes for the four bolts that connect the aft spar. Everything went great. These nuts/bolts are relatively easy to tighten.
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The drill attachments I used to drill the HS forward spar mounting holes.
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Notches in top flange of forward spar.
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Drilling the aft spar of the HS.
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