HS rivetting

A lot of the rivets are in the Horizontal Stabilizer now.
The remaining rivets are around the edges, and can be pushed using the hand rivet squeezer, which should make it less noisy and easier to get right.
Here i am cleco-ing things together after doing the last rivet of the night.

Horizontal stabilizer

The first major sub-component. This actually looks like a plane part.
While building this, and it's not done yet, i gained a lot of experience in handling 2024 aluminum ( or aluminium ), dimpling, priming and rivetting.
While the guidance on priming from Vans is quite vague, I think for the vert stabilizer I'll be more diligent about prepping and applying it over the internal surfaces.
Primer used here is Zinc Oxide out of an aerosol can from Aircraft Spruce

Garage insulation

Spent this afternoon installing fiberglass insulation over the garage, primarily to provide some sound insulation while I am riveting, drilling and running the compressor.
Also wondering if it will help moderate the temperature in there.
I probably lost a pound in sweat while installing that stuff.

The story so far

A long time ago, in 2003 actually, I took the leap and ordered the empennage kit for an RV8 from Vans.
Initially I made reasonable progress on the spars and ribs for the horizontal stabilizer ( the first part of the kit ), but, well, wasn't able to keep up the momentum.

Now, it's 2009, our daughter Alannah is 2 years old, and i figured it's time to get moving again.

This blog is really just meant as a diary right now, so posts may not be interesting to anyone at all apart from myself, however if anyone does take an interest and has questions or advice then they are very welcome to comment and I will happily accept feedback, this is on the internet after all.