-9 Horizontal Stab Riveting

OK veterans ,

I've been to a builders class, studied the preview plans until my eyes are about ready to pop out, and even watched the majority of some empennage videos I got from GBI.

However, looking at my skeleton of a HS sitting here, it appears that riveting the skins on will be a huge chore as far as bucking the rivets. I'm just not seeing the access to get a bar in there! I know it's not nearly as tough as it looks, but as I wound down operations this evening, that thought occurred to me.

Did it go fairly easy for all of you?

Way back in the day when I built my HS, I thought those rivets where so difficult to do. A couple of months ago I decided to reskin my HS because of some moving damage and other reasons . Well when I reskinned it they where super easy to do. Point is, you will get pretty good at riveting and after a while you don't really even think about it much, you just grab the gun , your favorite bucking bar and start pounding rivets. You will have rivets on your plane that you know if you could do them over you could make it so much better, that's just the way it goes. You always have that next plane to build.

As far as tips on those nose ribs on the HS, screw the wood blocks to your table and have someone run the gun while you work the bucking bar, most of my small dings have been from riveting something myself when I should have got help.

Have fun and keep working

It's a two man job with. One guy, standing on the bench, reaches down inside with the bar and the other works the gun.
Steve