11/1/2010 - 1.0 hr
After about a month and a half, I have the first major component of the plane done. I know I still need to complete the fiberglass tips but I plan on doing those sometime in the distant future.
I was able to squeeze the remaining rivets holding the rear spar to the skin and then squeeze the 1/8" universal head rivets that hold the upper and lower ribs to the rear spar. The last three rivets were the LP4-3 pop rivets that hold the rear spar to the middle rib. So I got to break out the pop rivet gun for the first time. And just like I did with the rivet sets. I covered the nose of the pop rivet gun with masking tape so when the shaft broke off, the sudden snapping of the gun wouldn't ding any surface. And that was it.
I guess one thing I was surprised by so far it that Vans (and many other builders) have you begin with the horizontal stab first. I'm somehow thinking that due to the ease that the VS went together along with it's lack of complexity, that it would have been better to start here first. But it's a good feeling to have something actually done that looks like the beginning of a plane.
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