I finished up the HS by drilling the aft attach bar hole to #12 and installing bolts. Now it was time to get to work on the VS. I first and to drill and install flush rivets on the outer sides of the bottom hinge on the VS. These are left undone on the VS plans, it depends on the model of plane you build as to what goes here, on the -8A you just need flush rivets. The plans then call for you to cut 9/16”off the bottom of the VS forward spar. (Note: Do not use the plans measurement, I would recommend 3/8”, you will see why as you read on.) I squared the VS to the HS and drilled the 4 holes at the bottom of the VS. This took some doing since I need to use and angle drill in the aft bay of the tail cone. The plans call for you to match drill through holes in the tie down block. A better plan would have been to not drill the holes into the tie down and just mark the hole locations onto the VS and drill from the outside in. I had already drilled holes according to plan in my tie down and I was worried about missing the mark if I drilled from the outside so I struggled with the angle drill. After drilling the holes to #30 I drilled them up to #12 from the outside and temporarily set the bolts. I then did the same for the bolts that go into the F812 angle at the top of the aft deck.
Next you set the up and down of the VS so that the hinges are all in line. Well when I did this I discovered my front spar would have zero edge distance it I drilled through the pre punched holes in the F884 bracket. This is when I discovered that the measurement in the plan is wrong. It was also that I remembered reading another builder log that had the same issue. Sure wish I had remembered that before I cut the forward spar. See next log entry.
Attach bar bolts
Bottom 4 bolts that go through tie down on the inside
I used my laser level to check my measurements, the top and bottom of VS are dead on.
