[doctornigel]

I am (again) putting the HS onto the tail cone. In the plans there were 4 bolts attaching the HS to the tailcone. There was one extra pair of holes that were used to align/cleco them together initially pg.11-4, figure 4.
Has anyone drilled that out and put another bolt in? Any reason not too? The hole is already there, just not a # 12 yet. Inquiring minds want to know your opinion.

 

[rvbuilder2002]

I am (again) putting the HS onto the tail cone. In the plans there were 4 bolts attaching the HS to the tailcone. There was one extra pair of holes that were used to align/cleco them together initially pg.11-4, figure 4.
Has anyone drilled that out and put another bolt in? Any reason not too? The hole is already there, just not a # 12 yet. Inquiring minds want to know your opinion.

Doc,
The short answer is...Why add the weight? (I know it is a small amount but building an airplane is as much a mind set as it is actual execution. A few ounces here, a few there...etc....etc. It's easy for it to get out of hand by the time you are done)

If you trust that the engineers designed in enough bolts to hold the wings on, then why not trust that they designed in enough bolts to hold the horizontal stabilizer on? Careless addition of extra bolt holes can actually weaken structure (not saying it would in this case). It would be better to ask the guy that designed it, but so often we are willing to blindly make a mod like this just because a couple of other builders post on line that "they did it and it seems fine".

BTW there is actually eight bolts holding the horizontal to the tail cone...which is about twice as many as holds the horizontal tail on many of the single engine Cessnas

 

[doctornigel]

Thanks for the thoughful reply. It's information like this that will allow me to decide what mind-set to build my plane with. Appreciated, Nigel