Completed the vertical stabilizer today. This is the first major subassembly to get completed and it feels great to make some progress. The flush skin rivets went in nicely and the skin has a nice uniform airfoil in it. The ribs took some work but I'm happy with the final results. Evidently I didn't get the rib flanges perfectly square during fluting, and the fluting didn't get the ribs perfectly true. The rivets were sitting just a bit cocked in the holes. So during the clecoing of the VS, I ended up taking some time to redo the ribs. The skin went back on the skeleton better the second time after the ribs were re-worked, and then I was able to rivet the structure together. I did find that by adding some masking tape to the webs of the ribs I was able to cut down, and essentially eliminate, the markings from the bucking bar during riveting. I put some pics of this in the HS logs.
Image 1 shows the completed vertical stab with my Tanner. Image 3 was taken with my cell phone and came out blurry, but shows the VS with the rear spar and end ribs yet to be riveted together. Image 2 shows the middle rib in the VS riveted to the skins.
