Look ma, its an airplane part!!!

So one of my "followers" asked me to stand back and provide some scale so they can see things better. Just a word of warning here - the only time you will see pics of a part that actually resembles something from an airplane is when they are close to being finished. I will try my best to provide a clear description of each pic. If you have trouble understanding what I am showing, let me know and I will be glad to elaborate or clarify. :)
Here is the left horizontal stabilizer, stood on its rear end end this time - it takes up about 4 feet of my work bench.

Match drilling holes through the skin into both inboard HS ribs

Another shot showing the holes drilled into the front rib. Also shows a nice straight rivet line going down the center section of the skin.

Rear side of the inboard HS ribs shows correct edge distance of drilled holes

The other side of the holes are shown here. It turns out that my approach to lining up the front rib and main rib that I described in earlier posts worked out beautifully. The large forming hole that you see between the two center holes in the vertical flange lined up perfectly with the same hole in the other rib. I will be posting details of how I approached this part of the assembly because it was just a bit different than what others have tried to do, but I found it to be much easier and more precise than what many others are trying to do. I don't know if my procedure will work for the RV 7 or other tail assemblies, but it works great for the RV8. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I did not need to order new parts or rework due to botching this part of the build, as many, many others before me have had to do.

HS 404 and 405 Inboard ribs - holes drilled and clecoed to the forward spar

A shot of a critical rib attach point. The 4 vertically placed clecoes are the focus of this pic. I had to use a 12 inch long drill bit to drill these 4 holes. The instructions said that using an angle drill is best, and I have one of these for my air drill. But, I could not get the drill bit to line up correctly when using the angle drill, so I opted for the long drill bit.
This step is the source of lots of controversy and discussion about how to do it correctly. Van's does not pre-drill any of these holes, and two of them go through two additional layers of metal to connect the ribs to the forward spar flange and the two angle support brackets, so correct measurements and precise trimming of parts, as well as precise drilling of the holes, is absolutely critical here. I had to bend and support the long drill bit with one hand, while running the drill with the other, which also means that the entire part had to be completely secured. I was able to put the leading edge up against the peg board wall to keep it from moving while I applied pressure on the the drill bit against the rib, drilling it from the rear side, or opposite side than the one shown here in this pic. I want to thank Ron and all the others on Van's Air Force that provided valuable info about how this should be done.

Left HS - Inboard RIbs

Remember to click on the photos to make them bigger - you can see much more detail that way. This is another shot of the inboard rib that shows the flutes as well two cleco clamps that come in very handy when clamping parts together. Also notice the pre-drilled holes in the skin. The blue stuf is the vinyl coating to protect the metal from scratches.

Left HS - Inboard Side - RIbs Clamped into Place

The inboard side. A lot of prep work takes place to get this rib all lined up and drilled correctly/

58 hours on the hobbs

A 4 day holiday weekend for Thanksgiving with awesomely warm weather resulted in a lot time to work on the plane. I did not get as far as I wanted to, but, as my friend Ron has already stated in his blog when he got to this point, this where it starts to get fun. This a a pic of the left side horizontal stabilizer with the skin pulled down off the shelf and clecoed to the frame. Lots of hole drilling, dimpling, priming,and riveting yet to do, but getting ever closer.......