Vertical Stabilizer Skin completed

1 hr. - Flipped the VS over and inserted all of the rivets, and began finishing up the skin.

And it's done!

Installed both antenna rods to see how it looks:

Vertical Stabilizer Skin

3 hrs. - It's been almost a month since my last post.  Life's kept us busy!  Had some down time with the Sonex engine I wanted to solve, and working away on my wife's office.  Good news is the Sonex is airworthy again and back in the sky.  I'll post about that soon.

Had to complete the VOR/GS/LOC antenna cable end before closing up the Skin.  When I ordered the antenna and cable, I also purchased the wrong fitting.  I needed Male ends but got female.  Thought I had an extra one at my hangar...and I did...an extra Female end.  Another order from Aircraft Spruce, and now the cable is terminated and connected to the antenna puck.

Skin is fitted and then I could enlarge the openings for the antenna rod exit holes.

If you look closely at the top, you can see the VOR/GS/LOC antenna rod sticking out.  These thread into the puck thru the Skin, and have a Allen set screw that locks it in place.

I reamed out all of the rivet holes, deburred the skin and structure and primed the inside Skin.  It's not pretty but also not meant to be visible, just cut down on corrosion.

Vertical Stabilizer Structure Complete

2 hrs.  - It's been over a month since any work was done on the Sling 4.  We've had a major diversion with the remodeling and tenant finish of my wife's new office fo her medical practice.  That project has made some great progress...so this afternoon while "relaxing" I decided to step out to the garage and complete the vertical stabilizer structure.  I had previously finished the rivnuts and the forward spar and ribs.  Completed reaming out the hole s in the multiple parts of the rear spar.  Made sure I noted the holes not to rivet, and finished riveting the rear spar structure to the ribs.  Also reviewing the plans I noticed missing a doubler plate for the top rib, for the Glide Slope / Localizer / VOR antenna puck.  This is now complete.

Vertical stabilizer - rivnuts

1 hour - Received a new nut puller (rivnut) tool for Christmas.  After using it on 6 rivnuts the mandrel for the M3 inserts broke on me...not too happy about that.  I ended up purchasing a better tool (the one Craig M. recommends) and in the meantime the vendor responded today they will send me a replacement M3 mandrel.

Needless to say I wasn't able to complete these parts and the vertical stabilizer structure.

Vertical Stabilizer - assembly begins

4 hrs. - This post combines about three separate days of activity spread over as many weeks, interrupted by my trip to LA when I got to fly the Sling 4.

First steps were unpacking the VS parts, then prepping and priming (did this before my trip).  I then started to assemble the the spars and ribs...and riveted the front spar, nose ribs and main ribs 1-3 together.

I plan to build my Sling to IFR capabilities, so the tip rib of the VS gets a VOR/Localizer/Glide Slope antenna for navigation and landing aid.

The last picture is my helper...our German Shepard "Bear".  He likes hanging out at the hangar!