Sling 4 for Matt Build Log

Spent another 30 minutes today match drilling holes to mount the VOR antenna in rib 04 of the horizontal stabilizer. I bought some new hard metal drill bits with good points and it made quality work of the effort. Using some AN hardware from other components, I determined the proper mounting bolt diameter would be AN3, and that corresponded to M5 hardware diameter as well. I used long M5 machine screws with washers as spacers to temporarily mount the antenna as close to the flanges as possible in order to template out cut lines. An interesting detail to note is that the rivet holes nears the antenna base will be nearly unusable. Some area of the base is just too close to fit a rivet through. I'll try to get shortened rivets in where I can and drill rivet holes elsewhere when I can't. I need to order mounting hardware. I suspect it'll be AN3-11 or 3-12 size bolts, but I haven't performed sizing yet. With the mounting holes now drilled, I can figure out the correct length...

I finally ran out of excuses to not work on the V. Stab. and got to work. TIME: 2 hrs The first task was to test fit the assembly. Two things of note: 1) Some of the rib flanges didn't align well with the rear and front spars, so some work with a hand seamer will be necessary; 2) The bottom ribs (1 & 5) require riveting through 4 layers, which usually means alignment challenges. I asked for a VOR doubler plate from the factory. The doubler plate is cut to fit inside rib 4 and follows the contours of an airfoil. However, rather than nicely rounded edges, it's a series of straight segments that are rather unappealing. The image below really demonstrates the awkward outline segments.  I believed that is was just shotty work and I would clean it up myself. Unfortunately, I don't have a bench sander, so away I go with the file.   The final result above looks nicer, even though this plate will never be visible when the skins are closed out. Consequently, I took a closer look ...