Today I finished riveting the Vertical Stabilizer. While I am going to rebuild the whole thing, I honestly am very happy with it. It's probably safe to fly with, but it's just not built match my level of expectation.
By the time I finished the VS, I felt like I really had the hang of riveting. Some were bad, most were good. But when it ended I could line them up and knock them down like a pro.
I've got a few dents where the rivet gun got awy from me, but they're really not anything that couldn't be filled.
The main reason I decided to rebuild the VS is because I had to oversize the rivets in the middle nose rib from 3/32" rivets to 1/8" rivets. When I increased the rivet sizes, it also required an increase in edge clearance minimums. The edge clearance was too small for 1/8" rivets, so instead of taking a risk, I decided to dedicate the VS to training and do it one more time when I have the skills required to build it.
Even though I'm scraping the VS. This has been a very good day in the shop.
The Good Part - A Completed Vertical Stabilizer
A couple of dents
Here's the 1/8" rivets in the noserib. And part of the reason I decided to rebuild the VS.
