Fixing the Vertical Stabilizer

Time: 3 hours

Date Complete: December 2, 2022

In an attempt to attach the rudder to the vertical stabilizer, I found an error that was made by the previous owners of the kit. They just didn't line up, being about 1/2" off.

After scratching my head for a few minutes, I looked at the drawings and determined that the Vertical Stabilizer's side of the piano hinge was cut and drilled incorrectly.

As you can see in the picture of the drawing above, the hinge should have been cut right at the knuckle and the holes drilled through the leaf in the middle of knuckle. 

You can see in the other picture that the hinge was cut incorrectly and the leaf was extended 1/2", then drilled where there was no knuckle. This explains why it was 1/2" off when I attempted to line up the rudder.

To fix the problem, I carefully drilled out all of the rivets to remove the piano hinge with a #20 drill bit. Then I drilled the holes in the correct positions on a new length of piano hinge using my piano hinge template.  Then I Clecoed and drilled everything up to 1/8", deburred everything, re-Clecoed, and then riveted it all back together again. 

Here's a video documenting how I fixed it. One thing I noted when editing the video is that I really need to raise parts up off the table enough that they aren't resting on Clecos. There's a lot of pressure on a very small spot that can bend thin (and expensive) aluminum skins.