Horizontal Stabilizer Construction:

Construction begins by reviewing plans and instructions and then match drilling

the horizontal stabilizer skeleton.

Horizontal spar joining, alignment and drilling of the two forward mounting brackets.

After fluting ribs, we match drilled skins to the skeleton and then deburred, dimpled

and applied epoxy premier to the inside skins. We competed skeleton by deburring,

dimpling and applying epoxy primer to all parts.

We then started assembly of the Horizontal Stabilizer skeleton by riveting forward

and rear spar sections together as well as a few of the center ribs as recommended.

After the nose ribs were installed, we were then ready to rivet the skin to the skeleton.

The remaining center ribs are installed at this point. And, the rear spar is added only

after all rivets were bucked below the rear spar position.

Even though it is not required, we used a laser plumb bob to align the jig cradles by

first aligning and match drilling holes through the jig cradles. Even though it was a

little on the expensive side, we figured that we would use the laser plumb bob to simplify

other RV-9A alignment jobs. I built one additional jig cradle to support the opposite

side. I think that the third jig cradle helped considerably. The yellow and gray

device shown below is a five beam laser plumb bob. If you are planning on

doing this, you do need to establish a 90 degree reference line using a third beam

before proper alignment can be established.

After 102.5 hours, the final rivet is being installed. Wow, both Vivain and I were very happy

to see the first completed assembly roll off of our production line. The RV-9A Upper Management

Project Team, shown in the last photo, and their associated families, celebrated after months

of tense anticipation.