Brief Description: Drill / Bolt Forward Spar to Fuselage
I took a few more measurements this morning to double check that I had the horizontal stabilizer clamped where I wanted it to be on the aft deck. I also ran a straight edge along the rivets on the longerons and extended this line to the lower angle of the front spar of the horizontal stabilizer. The trick here was to position the outboard holes in such a manner as to have sufficient edge distance for all of the pieces involved - the HS front spar angle, spacer, longeron, and lower aft deck angle. After checking, double-checking, triple -checking, re-tightening the clamps, etc, I SLOWLY drilled the two critical outboard holes to #40. I then checked underneath using a mirror and a flashlight and the holes came through fine - plenty of edge distance. Whew! I was worried about this but everything came out fine. I gradually enlarged the holes using progressively larger bits. Checking things in the mirror again showed that all was well. I then inserted bolts in these 2 holes and torqued them. This is just temporary but I figured the more clamping and alignment the better. Once the outboard holes were bolted, I used the angle drill to drill the two inboard holes. These were then also bolted to the aft deck. The front spar is done! Time to move on to the rear spar!
Transferring longeron rivet line to front spar angle
