Horizontal stab rib prep: 3.2 hours

Horizontal stab rib prep

No photos

Horizontal stab spar work: 3.5 hours

Drilled horizontal stab rt side forward spar doubler and splice angles

Trimmed splice angles

Bent splice angle ends 6 degrees

Polished splice angles

Edge finished forward spar

Deburred and dimpled 4 flush rivets on spar

Countersinked splice angles for above rivets

Front spar structure:

More of the same:

Horizontal stab front spar prep: 3.5 hours

Trim flanges, bend tabs, match drill left spar doubler and reinforcing angles

Horizontal stab prep: 1.9 hours

Finished prepping the rear spar.

No photos

New horizontal stabilizer work: 7 hours

I started work on my new horizontal stabilizer. Mainly spent the time prepping parts.

Progress is very rapid compared to the first time around.

The reason for the new horizontal stab is that Van's came out with a very extensive service bulletin for the horizontal stab to address cracks forming in the forward spar structure. This sb involved a lot of drilling out rivets and disassembling a significant amount of the horizontal stab.

The more I researched it and thought about the work involved and the potential for error I decided to build a new horizontal stab instead of doing the service bulletin. 

The main reason is that the new horizontal stab incorporates all the fixes of the service bulletin. The secondary reason was that my skills have increased a huge amount since I did the first horizontal stab and I thought I could do a very high quality job on it quickly - maybe faster and with certainly with less complication than doing the service bulletin.

And I have the old horizontal stab to make a coffee table out of!

Horizontal stab parts organization and rear spar prep: 1.5 hours

Horizontal stab parts organization and rear spar prep

No photos

Canopy frame work: 4 hours

More canopy frame fitting working on the rear bows

Also prepped several interior parts for repriming.

No photos

Initial canopy bubble trimming: 4 hours

I started making the initial trim cuts on the canopy bubble. I used a variety of tools including the dremel multimax, the battery powered dremel, an air powered die grinder with the Vans supplied cutoff wheel and a small belt sander for smoothing the edges.

I was not happy with the multimax as it was extremely slow.

Had a little help:

Initial trimming:

Progress: