Wowie Zowie! This is definitely the funnest day yet!
We ended up completing the horizontal stabilizer. My dad and Cormac spent a good chunk of the day today helping me with the rivets. First, we completed the rear spar. (I drilled out some more rivets and we used two people to set them… one on the rivet gun and another holding the bucking bar.)
When work proceeded to the skin on the stabilizer, we really got into a rhythm. By default, I ended up working the bucking bar all day. Cormac and dad took turns hammering away at the rivets. On the last panel, we really hit our stride. Dad placed the rivets, Cormac ran the rivet gun, and I stretched my arm into the stabilizer and held the bucking bar. We were probably setting 2 or 3 rivets a minute.
As the day wound down, I completed the horizontal stabilizer with the hydraulic squeezer. It’s interesting, we drove hundreds of rivets by hand and only had to drill out a few. I used the squeezer on the edge rivets and goofed up more. (I think I’ve figured out my problem… I need to slow down and make sure the squeezer is aligned correctly.)
