Tail Group Construction Log
	Construction Time	126.25	hours
Date	Description	Time	Assembly
04.01.24	Riveted the stabiliser fairings (I had to install alum strips inside for the rivets to have a good….)	1.50
03.04.10	Re-adjusted elevator up stop.	0.75
03.03.29	Improved installation of rudder electrical wires.	0.75
03.03.28	Installed nutplates to hold the fiberglass saddle.  Finished triming the saddle.  Made a new nose skin fairing for the rudder.  Connected the wires for the tail light (and installed the tail light).	4.00
03.03.27	Cut rudder nose skin to fit fuselage saddle.  Made and installed a rib-fairing.  I wanted to remove a little mark on the rudder skin and made it worse.  So, I made a patch to cover the defect and made a similar patch for the other side so they are the same.  Installed electrical wires and riveted the rudder.  Finally, I made the cutout for the tail light and positioned it.  I epoxied (with JB Weld the nuts in the fairing -- to be re-installed 2morrow). Installed stabilizer, elevator and rudder on fuselage.	6.50
03.03.26	Replaced elevator lower horn, but did not test it. I primed/painted the stab attachment brackets and primed the lower section of the control yoke. Positioned and cut the saddle to fit the stabilizer.  Made the lower rudder fairing and cut the rear fuse skin to fit the fairing.	8.00
03.03.23	Cut rear fuse top skin to insert the stabiliser in its position.  Installed rudder and drilled upper hinge.  I checked rudder deflection and it appears to be insufficient.  I may have to replace the rudder lower hinge and the fuselage top hinge.	6.00
01.05.14	Installed upper hinge on rudder	2.00	Rudder
01.05.13	Installed rudder horn.	1.50	Rudder
00.09.11	Installed elevator trim tab wire and closed (riveted) elevator	2.00	Hor. tail
99.08.08	No building.  Pierre Fournier, a RAA inspector came home to look at my work (this visit was scheduled since a long time).  I found his visit to be very constructive.  He looked at my elevator, stabilizer and rudder and found them all OK.  The only thing he suggested is to put drain holes in the stabilizer.	0.00	Hor. tail
99.08.31	During his visit, I found that R. Gervais is an inspector for the RAA… I then took the opportunity to have him look at my parts, assemblies and construction techniques.  Apparently, I am doing a good job.  On my stabilizer, he had me remove the small doubler I made to correct one elongated hole.  Normally it would have been ok, but in my case, the top rivet was too near the front flange... I then removed the doubler and redrilled the delinquent holes for A6 rivets.  (Angello brought me some A6 rivets with the proper riveter).  I closed the stab and stored it in my store room (with the elevator and rudder).	2.50	Hor. tail
99.08.09	Nothing… I just hung up my horizontal tail on the wall and cleaned up the table.	0.00	Hor. tail
99.08.08	Brought my fairings to Andre Letourneau for advise (yesterday).  He gave me some fiberglass, epoxy and micro-balloun for reinforcing and filling the drill holes. I made a new fairing rib that I later decided to not use.  I redrilled the left fairing so the tip is 1/8" further away from the elevator.  I then sanded the fairing to the rib... very nice!  Not being used to work with epoxy and fiberglass, I created quite a mess... but I can clean and sand it (as a matter of fact, it is now done).  The stab and elevators are READY FOR INSPECTION!!!	3.00	Hor. tail
99.08.06	Installed left stabilizer fairing (same as yesterday).  There is a problem… when I install the elevator, this fairing may touch the elevator (there is about 0.016" clearance).  I could replace the fairing, but I think I can save it by making a new rib and installing it 3/32" inside the fairing and back drilling.  The rivets will be near the edge of the fairing, but it is worth trying.	2.00	Hor. tail
99.08.05	Installed right stabilizer fairing (reshaped fairing with heat gun, installed fairing rib, installed fairing + drilled, attached elevator to stabilizer to see the fit, trimed lower L angle on elevator to avoid contact with stabilizer rear attachment)	2.00	Hor. tail
99.08.05	Increased size of pushrod hole (because of friction at maximum deployment)	0.50	Elevator
99.08.04	Installed (riveted) trim tab servo and tab to elevator (after deburring, priming, etc).  Made the access plate. Riveted elevator bottom skin and front flange.  Deburred, cleaned and primed horn components and piano hinge.	3.50	Elevator
99.08.03	Worked on elevator trim tab.	2.00	Elevator
99.07.24	Made elevator trim tab and drilled piano hinge to tab (+primed).  I still have to drill the other half of the piano hinge to the elevator and install the servo+rod (including access holes).	1.50	Elevator
99.07.12	Assembled elevator horns.  Made cutout for rudder.  Note:  when I drilled the piano hinge, I decided to start 20mm each side of the center line (instead of starting at center line).  THIS IS NOT GOOD.  Those holes were in the way when I came to install the upper horn and L angle.	4.00	Elevator
99.07.05	Deburred the elevator skin & primed top flange.	1.00	Elevator
99.07.04	Drilled and clecoed top flange of elevator.  Note: because the position was very certain and the rest of the ribs were clecoed, I did not pre-drilled.  I went directly with #30 holes and clecoes. (1.5 hour). Drilled and clecoed piano hinge (2 hours). Also tested the fit on the stabilizer.  Deburred and primed the ribs (1 hour).  I noticed that a lot of my holes are in the flutes... I relocated the flutes, but I think more effort will be needed when I fit them back on the elevator... we'll see.  We could say that I caught up with the mistake I made on the elevator (took me 10.5 hours to get back to the same point I was on Thursday night). To avoid drilling too deep, I used a drill stop that I made.	4.50	Elevator
99.07.03	Clecoed front and bottom flange… started top flange	1.50	Elevator
99.07.02	I called Zenithair (Roger).  He told me that I should replace the skin of my elevator (see yesterday's log).  Today, I made 6 new elevator ribs (1.5 hour), a new skin (1.5 hour) and I riveted the new ribs to the old channel (1 hour).  I also started to pre-drill the new skin (.5 hour).	4.50	Elevator
99.07.01	Fernand came to see my front spar rivet line.  He said that it is OK! :)  According with him, I would not need to add a rivet line because I clear the radius of the spar.  I do have two holes that were drilled through the flange of my doubler that I made to repair an elongated hole... I will see at inspection time.  This evening, I completed the stab assembly.  Remaining is to cut the sides at the right dimension and to deburr.  I deburred most of it this evening.  I also made shims to put on the leading edge of the nose ribs (the reason for my bad rivet line is that the skin was not properly pressed on the rib... if you do this, strap the rib with a 2X4 on the back in addition to do what is written in the assembly manual.  When I finished, I attached the elevator to the stab.  It is really nice! (with the exception of my idea to try to exactly align the stab rivets with the elevator rivets.... I should have staggered them instead).	4.00	Hor. tail
99.07.01	While working on the stab, I noticed that when I drilled the piano hinge in place, for every hole I made, my drill touched the front flange of the elevator skin.  I don't know if this is really bad… I will phone Flypass or Zenair tomorrow.	0.50	Elevator
99.06.30	Assembled the stabilizer.  The bottom skin is riveted and the top skin is clecoed.  Remaining is to install the piano hinge and drill some holes in the front of the tip ribs.  Oh yes, I have to cut the skin to leave 20mm at each end for the stab fairings.   The rivet pitch on the end-ribs is awkward due to the flutes in the ribs.  Also, my rivet line on the top front spar is near the radius.  When I drilled the holes, I damaged many rivets that attach the spar doubler to the spar.  I replaced about 15 rivets.  I asked Art Mitchell what to do with this... he told me that I may drill a new line of rivets in between at the proper place.  Fernand Levesque will come tomorrow to tell me if I really have a problem.  Oh... my drill bit slipped at two or three places on the skin... we will look at that also.	10.00	Hor. tail
99.06.27	Made L cuts for horn doubler (also made doubler).  Drilled and clecoed piano hinge to elevator.	2.50	Elevator
99.06.26	Drilled and clecoed top flange of elevator.  Note: because the position was very certain and the rest of the ribs were clecoed, I did not pre-drilled.  I went directly with #30 holes and clecoes.	1.25	Elevator
99.06.25	What a good evening!  My mentor will be proud of me!  I marked center lines on rib langes and also marked rivet lines on the elevator skin.  I pre-drilled, drilled and clecoed the front and bottom flanges.  I wanted to wait to see how everything fits to pre-drill the top flange.	3.00	Elevator
99.06.22	Finished priming.  Riveted stab. skeletion except the fuselage attachments (I keep this until the skin is made and clecoed.  This way, I can work with an oversize skin and trim it when it is done).  While riveting, I noticed one elongated hole on a rib.  I made a doubler out of 0.016" for the rib.  I also had some difficulties with some rivets near the outside flange on the rear spar.  I drilled three of those out and remade them.  While inspecting, I notice one rivet that is not flush with the surface... I will see what I do with it.	2.50	Hor. tail
99.06.21	Deburred stabilizer parts.  Made one new L angle to hold end rib to the front spar.  Cut rear end of end ribs (to match the rear Z).  Scotch Brighted and cleaned.  Started to prime with ZnCr.  Ran out of primer.	2.50	Hor. tail
99.06.20	Completed the stabilizer assembly.  I only forgot to cut the rear end of the end ribs.  I started to deburr the holes.	3.00	Hor. tail
99.06.18	Clecoed L angles to hold end-ribs to the spars.  Clecoed the six inner ribs to the stabilizer front spar.  To attach to the rear spar, I will have to trim the rear tabs a little bit (they are about 3-4mm too wide).	1.50	Hor. tail
99.06.10	Completed front spar assembly.  While I made a couple of mistakes, I easilly recovered from those.  1. I drilled in the no-drill section when clecoing the doublers to the spar.  As a result, my attachment doublers could not be installed due to a edge distance problem with my pre-drilled hole (in the spar).  I decided to make new attachment doublers 82mm long (instead of 75) to obtain the minimum allowable edge distance for those holes. I also added an extra rivet.  2. the spar moved when drilling the attachment to the spar.  As a result, one hole (on the spar doubler) got elongated (not nice... i have seen that on another project and it does not look safe).  To correct this, I made a doubler (75mm of 0.040") that I installed over the spar doubler.  It is fixed with three rivet holes (the center one covering the elongated hole).  Besides these two things, everything went very well.	3.00	Hor. tail
99.06.06	Finished drilling spar doublers to rear spar	1.00	Hor. tail
99.04.25	Drilled nose skin to skeletion… oups!  A few mistakes with edge distance… we will see the impact later.  Deburred and smoothered all rudder. Primed and assembled back.  I riveted one side and clecoed the other (ready for inspection.	6.00	Rudder
99.04.24	Formed nose skin & fit on rudder (no drilling yet).  Marked rivet holes along the spar.	1.50	Rudder
99.04.23	Drilled RR1 holes	0.25	Rudder
99.04.19	I decided that I did not like the bat cut at the bottom and I made a new skin.  To accommodate that, I also remade RR2, RR3 and RR4.  I took the opportunity to make a new forming block for RR2 (mine was 535 mm and the plans call for a 515 mm rib).  I drilled all holes (except for RR1), clecoed, final cut and deburred (but not yet smoothered).  Since I did not replace the tip rib, I made a hole duplication tool to copy those holes that I made yesterday.  Worked very well and no mistake with the exception of a hole which is too near to the end of RR3 rib.  My goal was to prime the ribs and the skin... but I ran out of primer.  Next time...	6.75	Rudder
99.04.18	Pre-drilled rudder skin, installed skin on skeletion and drilled+clecoed to skeletion, cut rudder skin on spar and RR1 sides.  I made 3 mistakes today… I bumped the skin a bit, but this will be OK.  The two other mistakes are with the cisors… I cut into the skin at RR1 about 6mm, leaving only 8mm overlap between the flange and the skin at that point.  I layed out a rivet pitch to correct this mistake (at 20 mm pitch from when the overlap is 9mm to the normal overlap).  The third mistake is also with the cisor (cutting on the bend), but it is corrected.	2.50	Rudder
99.04.14	My advisor, Fernand Levesque came home to inspect my work in progress.  The rudder skeletion is fine.  My A4 riveter head is fine.  However, he did not like the A5.  After cutting a riveted A5 rivet base to look how the head was formed, I saw why… the head is not in full contact with the alumimium sheet (only the edge is because of over-forming).  While I worked about 3 hours to make this riveter head, he modified it to make it right in about 5 minutes (with a hand drill to spin the riveter head and a grinding stone on a Dremel).  We also looked at how the skin will be fitted.  The sequence will be a bit different from what we see in the manual...we'll see.  After the visit, we went to the monthly RAA meeting to attend a presentation on aerodynamics.	1.00	Rudder
99.04.12	Riveted rudder skeletion.	0.50	Rudder
99.04.11	Primed rudder skeletion with ZnCr replacement from Canadian Tire…  This stuff is more liquid than I expected… and my wife does not like the odour.	1.00	Rudder
99.04.10	Deburred, scoth-brighted and filed corners on rudder parts.	1.50	Rudder
99.04.09	Installed rudder tip rib.  I had to make the little braket three times (probably because I was too tired to work on this project this evening).  On top of that, some holes are not in straight line (yark!)	1.00	Rudder
99.04.08	Installed all rudder ribs except for the tip rib.  I had to modify RR3 because it was not wide enough (the hydraulic press has been useful here!) (2.5 h).  Since I did not want to f*** up anything, I started with RR2.  Good thing!  My drill bit slipped and I had to install it a bit lower. Phew! (it was not RR1).  Paul Fournier, a RAA member who built a CH-250 came here to explain me how to use my bending press.  He made some adjustments.  Then, he looked at my work and showed me a few tricks to adjust parts for a perfect fit (when they are not perfectly manufactured).  I was about to remanufacture a couple of ribs, but he said that my spar and ribs are probably better quality than what come in kits.  I had just a few adjustments to make (happy guy here!) (2 hours not counted).	2.50	Rudder
99.04.06	Finally, I officially started assembly this evening!!!  Not a lot, but I positionned the doublers inside the spar, drilled the top hole and clecoed.  I also cut the bottom (27 degrees angle) and I verified my two RR1 (I found one to fail due to a bad position of the bend of the 53mm tab (which was 48mm) (1.5)	1.50	Rudder