Posted by I was joking with my hangar neighbor Dave yesterday that with all the backordered brackets, all assemblies in the empennage kit are going to get blocked except for the tailcone and that I should start with that… except the first step is to tap some threads into a tie-down bar. But, I don’t have a thread tapping tool. Dave does, and he was kind enough to lend it to me!
So I decided to do the first few steps of the tailcone kit, so I could return the thread tapping tool before I “misplace” it. Side note: I found my fluting pliers, but they were actually fluting vise-grips, in the bin with a bunch of other vise-grip clamps.
The threading went especially well. And I happened to have a few 3/8″-16 bolts handy, so was immediately able to test the threads for fit, and all was good.
To keep the momentum up, I continued with a few other steps in the Tailcone chapter (#10). This included clecoing and match and final drilling some rear fuselage bulkhead parts with the tiedown block, preparing to install nutplates in the rudder cable angle piece, and “whanging” the bow out of the Horizontal Stabilizer attachment bars (thick pieces of aluminum) with a rubber mallet and finishing the edges.
I also brought my helper pup out to the hangar shop for the afternoon.
Builder's Log 