Drilling the first of eight 3/16" holes that keep the horizontal stabilizer in formation with the fuselage.

This was pretty late on a Saturday...most of my helpers were unavailable, so I tried to tighten the bolts myself. I had been asking Isabel all day long to help me, but she had more important things to do, like any self-respecting six-year-old. Then it hit me...this girl loves to make forts out of chairs, boxes, bushes, etc. Why not see what she thought of an aluminum fort?

That worked. Deburring holes is boring...but crawling into a metal cave...now that's cool!

She wormed her way back to the very end. I can fit there, but just. Then she started giving me orders...pass this tool, turn the bolt that way etc. Anyway, we got it tightened, and even torqued.

I am proud to say that the first nut my youngest daughter ever tightened was on my airplane! I'm into "firsts" like that...when my oldest daughter Emma was a baby, we took her to the Air & Space Museum...so I can proudly say that she touched a Moon rock before she ever touched an Earth rock!

She didn't want to come out, but we ran out of bolts.

Now for the four bolts that attach the HS rear spar to these beefy ears sticking out of the fuselage. This is a little wooden tool I made to make sure the holes I drilled were centered on the rear HS spar caps. I used this to line them up with the existing rivets and bolts, which are on the centerline. I've lost count of how many little tools I've had to invent on the fly...most of them wooden.

This let me get the scribe mark close, but I didn't want to risk "close". So I ended up using the mirror.

I used the inspection mirror to line up the scribe mark (where I proposed to drill) with the other bolts.

Finally, all eight holes are drilled, and all eight bolts are torqued.

The back end. The bolt through that center bearing has a bzillion washers...I thought I would never get it in. My buddy Brian at work, a mechanical engineer, smiled knowingly when I complained about it and said "Oh, yeah, I hate one-hour bolts." What a relief...I thought it was just me!

I found out too late (one hour too late) that I stuck in a bolt that was one size too short. I almost slit my wrists, but came up with a way to do it in one minute. I stuck the new (longer) bolt through in the opposite direction, and used it to push the old bolt out. That way, the washers got transferred from one bolt to the other without falling off.

That last former is only held on by a couple of pop rivets. It'll have to come out soon (before installing the VS) to install the tailwheel attach bracket.

That dangling rod end bearing will eventually go to the pushrod, which is all painted and riveted and sitting in the workshop.