Horizontal Stabilizer COMPLETED.

[OldAndBold]

Congratulate me, for I now walk among those who have completed their horizontal stabilizers.

The sequence of events:

1) Buy the kit
2) Wait for kit to arrive
3) Transport kit to garage
4) Have pictures taken of me sitting in kit
5) Focus on getting PPL completed
6) Let kit sit in the garage for several months
7) Complete garage workshop
8) Take new job 2000 miles away
9) Move family to temporary home (several months)
10) Move kit cross country by UHaul truck to storage
11) Kit sits in storage several months
12) Move into new house
13) Move kit from storage to new house
14) Focus on trip to China to adopt new daughter
15) Make feeble attempt to start, get overwhelmed by details
16) Procrastinate by posting to aviation websites
17) Partially complete new basement workshop (several months)
18) Feel guilty about not spending enough time with the new daughter
19) Begin to realize that the wife will take care of the new child IF I just disappear into the basement
20) Begin again on empennage
21) Learn how to rivet
22) Learn how to drill out bad rivets
23) Break off bolts, post to website seeking help
24) Learn how to use torque wrench correctly
25) Get frustrated by the high cost of renting airplanes
26) Get frightened by the condition of rental aircraft
27) Commit to building the empennage
28) One weekend and two six packs of asian beer later
29) Completed Horizontal Stabilizer.

Pictures to follow.

--John Babrick
N777XV 7A QB HS Complete

[grantcarruthers]

Congrats on the first of many "completions". And nice perseverance too.

Now quit posting and get back in the shop.


PS, just did a 300 Knotmile xc in a C-150 yesterday and holy cr@p I'm ready to flightplan RV speeds. ($300 bucks rental )

Wings arrive mid-April. Once I can get past tax bill and pay down credit card from vacation I'm gonna have to buy an RV-4. I'm having too much fun building to go quick-build but I can't keep flying cessnas for another ~4 years. Figure when I sell the RV-4 it'll go to the panel or FWF?

Later

Grant

[cytoxin]

Originally Posted by grantcarruthers

Congrats on the first of many "completions". And nice perseverance too.

Now quit posting and get back in the shop.


PS, just did a 300 Knotmile xc in a C-150 yesterday and holy cr@p I'm ready to flightplan RV speeds. ($300 bucks rental )

Wings arrive mid-April. Once I can get past tax bill and pay down credit card from vacation I'm gonna have to buy an RV-4. I'm having too much fun building to go quick-build but I can't keep flying cessnas for another ~4 years. Figure when I sell the RV-4 it'll go to the panel or FWF?

Later

Grant

flew the 150 yestertday for a whopping total of 1.1 couldnt even get to columbia to the 242 but it was better than nothing. a whole 67$

[DeltaRomeo]

Congrats, Bob! Now go out in the front yard and take the picture we all end up taking for the album <g>.

Here's me ten years ago...

[OldAndBold]

Originally Posted by DeltaRomeo

Congrats, Bob! Now go out in the front yard and take the picture we all end up taking for the album <g>.

Here's me ten years ago...

Ooooh you got the elevators done... and the trim tab too... that'll be another year for me.

Actually, I was supposed to get the VS done yesterday, but I got distracted by the summer weather we had. But it should get done *soon*.

JCB

[pierre smith]

Originally Posted by grantcarruthers

PS, just did a 300 Knotmile xc in a C-150 yesterday and holy cr@p I'm ready to flightplan RV speeds. ($300 bucks rental )

Later
Grant

I found out during the past year that you can figure on doing a trip in the RV in around 1/4th the time it takes to drive! My son lives 100 miles away and usually takes 2 hours to drive. By air it's 85 miles and takes 30 minutes....now keep pounding rivets

Regards,

[mikegraycmg]

You left out the steps "ordering new horizontal stabilizer parts," and then "ordering new horizontal stabilizer parts," and then again "ordering new horizontal stabilizer parts."

[OldAndBold]

It's really something that all those little flimsy metal parts can finally join together into something that rigid and strong.

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

Wait til you see what a bunch of flimsy longerons, a bunch of flimsy bulkhead parts and a bunch of flimsy fuselage skins end up as.