This morning I drilled the HS stab doublers matched to the spar channel and the 412/413 hinges. I also matched drilled the 411 hinge side to the VA-146 Bearing. I chose to prime the aluminum of the bearing, this might be overkill but I was touching up the VS from dings I made while riveting so I thought what the heck. I taped over the bearing to keep the paint out.
The visit with the EAA Technical Counselor went very well this afternoon. I figure I can have faith in his opinion the guy was a career guy at Boeing and did rivet and workmanship inspections for them. Not to mention the millions of rivets he has set himself. He knew right off I was using a pneumatic squeezer on the spar rivets. He thought the skin rivet I bucked on the interior ribs were good. He certainly did not think mine would be show quality, he also has been judging at the NWEAA Fly-in for like 20 years. All in all he thought my work was nice, he did not see any rivets he recommended I replace. He did have some pointers on how to guide the shop head if it starts to wonder off from center. I did find my eye was getting better as I went along but I still felt like I had to measure each rivet with the gauge. If I keep this up it will take me a lifetime to get this thing done. Bucking with the tungsten bar was definitely nice, I tried some that bar I have but this one was the best.
After the visit with the TC, I started the job of the remaining rivets on the VS. I finally had to stop at 11 pm. The only rivets left are the ones that attach the spar to the ribs; I will try to take care of these in the morning.
