Vertical stabilizer progress: 2 hours

• Clamped vertical stab forward attach plate in place then clamped vertical stab to it and fuselage
• Aligned vertical stab with horizontal stab and checked alignment with tape measure (many, many times)
• Clamped vertical stab attachment bracket / elevator stop in place and drilled holes for AN3 bolts. I started with the angle drill through the pilot holes in the bracket then I used the regular drill from the back side to open up and ream the holes final size.

Drilling vertical stab mount / elevator stop:

Getting everything lined up:

Drilling pilot holes in vertical stab mount bracket:

Clamping and measuring alignment:

Looking more like an airplane!

Started vertical stabilizer mounting: 3 hours

• Before starting to fit the vertical stabilizer I removed the horizontal stabilizer and deburred all the holes on the stab and the fuselage then re-attached the horizontal stab.
• I made the vertical stabilizer attachment bracket and elevator up travel stop out of a piece of 1/8" angle. The first version turned out undersized so I made another more generously sized.
• I located the forward attachment bracket and started researching the best way to get everything lined up.
• While working on this I noticed that the elevator down stop on the quick build fuselage will need to be trimmed significantly to get the correct travel. I sent an email to Van's to verify.

This photo show the vertical stab attach bracket / elevator up stop. Also you can see the over sized elevator down stop under the elevator bearing.

Forward attach bracket and rear attach angle:

First draft of the attach bracket / up stop before trimming:

Finished horizontal stabilizer mounting: 2 hours

• I spent a significant amount of time checking that the incidence of the horizontal stabilizer was correct. I did this by using two 3/16" aluminum tubes through the stab's nose ribs tooling holes. This stab is the new one incorporating the service bulletin and on my aft ribs (hs-00005) the tooling holes are not aligned with the chord line. The stab turned out perfectly level using the standard Van's shims - no adjustment required.
• I carefully located the bottom aft attach holes first and drilled starting with a #30 bit and working up to a 3/16" reamer. I got a nice tight fit for the AN3 bolts.
• Once the bottom holes were drilled and the stab was temporarily bolted in place I removed the clamps and drilled the upper two holes.

All aft attach holes turned out great:

Another shot looking forward with all holes drilled:

First hole done:

Everything turned out level without adjustments:

Horizontal stabilizer mounting: 10 hours

This work was done over several days:

• Researched horizontal stabilizer mounting: plans, video and blogs.
• Did some initial positioning of stabilizer and found that the right aft flange of the hs-00005 rib was interfering with the vertical mounting bar. To fix this I removed the rivets holding the flange to the rear spar and carefully trimmed the flange. I wedged a sacrificial piece of very thin aluminum between the rib and spar to protect the spar.
• Made the forward 1/8" spacers for the horizontal stab
• Triple checked and marked center lines on the aft fuselage deck where the stab mounts.
• Also marked the longeron outline to make sure I could drill with good edge distance
• Clamped stab in place and checked alignment with wings and fuselage. I used the technique of drilling a hole in the tape measure and using a cleco to secure it - works great for accurate solo measurements.
• Once everything was triple checked and clamped I drilled through the stab, spacer and longeron. I bolted the left side down, rechecked measurements and drilled the right. I did have to make a spacer for the left side bolt to clear a rivet.
• I replaced the rivets in the right rib flange and cleaned every thing up.
• With the stab on saw horses I drilled the inboard mounting holes from the bottom up. I then bolted the stab back on the fuselage and drilled the holes through the fuselage structure with the angle drill using the stab as a guide.

Forward stab mounting holes done:

Ready to drill the inboard holes from the bottom up:

Right bolt hole done:

After trimming rib flange:

Starting to check positioning and alignment:

Spacers made from 1/8" bar:

Dad came over to help me get started on the horizontal stab:

Drilled rear spars plus some landing light work: 4 hours

• Re-leveled fuselage. Reset string and plumb bobs. Triple checked sweep and angle of incidence for left wing
• Drilled hole for left wing rear spar AN5 bolt. I met the required 5/8" edge distance from the hole center plus a little extra. I started with a 1/8" drill and slowly worked up to an undersized 5/16" reamer that provided a snug fit for the AN5 bolt.
• After the left wing did the same process for the right wing including checking level, sweep and incidence.
• Mounted landing lights in brackets and mounted right landing light in wing tip.

Landing light mounted in right wing tip:

Landing / taxi lights mounted in brackets:

Drill bits and reamers for the right rear spar:

 Left rear spar drilled:

Wing alignment and landing lights: 5 hours

• Made tool to check wing incidence per the plans
• Right wing incidence was good. Left wing rear spar needed to come up.
• Adjusting left wing incidence introduced forward sweep.
• Unfortunately the left wing rear spar did not have any more room for adjustment so the wing had to be pulled out a few inches and the rear spar trimmed.
• Removed the mechanical stall warner from the left wing - my G3X has angle of attack sensing so the stall warner is not needed. I will mount the outside air temperature probe on the stall warner access panel.
• Started working on the landing lights. Used the Baja Designs template to cut out the bracket for each light.
• Prepped and primed landing light brackets
• Britt and I removed the pins and pulled the left wing out a few inches. I trimmed the spar about 1/16" and we put the wing back in.

The landing lights are fun to work with:

A better shot of the plane in the garage:

Angle with 3" piece to measure wing incidence:

Level fuselage and check wing sweep: 3.5 hours

• Used my digital level to level the fuselage in all axes. The stand for the fuselage has adjustable legs. Getting everything right took about an hour.
• Set up plumb bobs and checked wing sweep. Initial results were a bit of forward sweep on each wing. 
• The left wing had some room for adjustment and could simply be re-positioned.
• The right wing was already as far as it would go so I removed the pins and with Britt's help slid the wing out a few inches. Then I trimmed about 1/16" off of the aft spar.
• I re-leveled the fuselage and wings, adjusted the plumb bobs and everything came out dead on.

All plumb bobs aligned =  no wing sweep!

Getting ready to trim the right aft wing spar:

Right wing had about 1/4" forward sweep:

String and plumb bobs to line everything up:

I used my laser plumb bob to verify alignment with the fuselage:

I'm happy that my QB fuselage has zero twist fore and aft:

Everything leveled: