Tips fixed

Some "blue foam", epoxy, glass fiber threads and gel coat and the tips looks perfect again, and the skin fits as it should.

H-stab and tips

The tips were a bit challenging. For some odd reason, the tip ribs have pre-drilled holes. So do the skin, but not the tip. The tip is to be sandwiched between the rib and the skin and this makes it impossible to line up the holes. I used my old home made hole duplicator and duplicated the holes from the rib to the tip. Then with the tip in place, the skin were way to tight and I had to cut off a bit of the tip to be able to line up the holes. This leaves a small gap I need to close with foam or something glued to the fiber glass tip.

Elevator and H-stab

Finished the elevator as far as I could without match-drilling to correct size. 1/8 rivets usually requires #30 drill bit. But from Mike when using flush rivets the holes needs to be smaller, and #31 or #32 drill bits shall be used. I am not entirely sure why, but I would guess that if the holes are "too large" the stem will break off too late and will protrude above the rivet, and this will not look good. I ordered a bunch of 31 and 32 drill bits as well as #30 since my last one got worn and useless when drilling the elevator horn (what kind of steel is that horn made of? )

Both halves of the elevator are now drilled in place with the hinges. The only way to fit the stab-side of the hinges is now to completely finish the elevators with the hinges riveted on, or else I could end up with having to file each and every of the 66 lobs on the hinges if I am a fraction of a millimeter wrong.

The hinges on the elevator shall be 1.45 mm down from the upper surface. Luckily I had a large carpenters ruler that were exactly 1.45 mm thick that I used as an offset.

Tried the skin on the stab, and to my surprise it fits. Several brackets and ribs on the stab needs modification though due to interference.

Hardware from ACS and elevator

The hardware from ACS arrived. Left everything in their small bags, but sorted the bags. Continued on the elevators. It was a lot of measurements and drilling in this area, but the measures on the drawings are logical and correct with proper datum, so it is fairly easy (not like the -4 where everything is floating and with drawings out of scale). I'm not totally sure how the hinges and everything will add up in the end, so I hope the drawings are correct, and I left the root ribs still undrilled.

Bending the spars

Bended the spars of the horizontal and vertical stabilizers using a hydraulic press in the shop in the lab at work. Also bought a cheap rivet gun at Jula.

More stab

Deburred all the parts for the stab (except the holes that needs to be match drilled). I also cut out the elevators from the stock Xenos "ruddervators". Left a 5 mm oversize on the root to be able to trim to correct size.

The tip ribs have this groove. I measured it to be 0.7 mm. I drilled a hole to stop any eventual stress risers. One of them was quite heavily skewed (wonder what Sonex say about that). The attach angles (T04-12) are oversized and needs to be trimmed to be able to fit flat on the spar.

I have to wait for the hardware, hinges in particular, to be able to work further, so I started to sort out the parts for the vertical stab, an will bend the vertical spar tomorrow as well.

Started on horizontal stab

Got everything packed out. The preformed angles and bits and pieces looks excellent. I am also impressed with the packing. So I started with the horizontal stab. The reinforcements did not have predrilled holes, only tiny pin holes made by laser (or something). There are some amount of deburring, match-drilling etc that has to be done, but very little measurements and cutting. That saves LOTS of time. The fwd spar needs to be bent, but my brake was just too small so I have to bring it with me to work on monday and do it in a real press.

I forgot that no hardware is included, so I ordered that today from Aircraftspruce. I need some bolts and the hinges for the stab. Some of the stuff was put on back order, and ACS sent me a mail that they have cancelled my back order because to the shipment cost was much larger than the cost of the goods. Then I found that a shop in Germany is the official European distributor of ACS (aircraftspruce.eu). I ordered the rest from them + some drill bits and other small parts at a fraction of the shipment cost. That will definitely be my main source of supplies from no on.

Compared with my RV-4 this kit goes together much faster, several orders of magnitude faster. That is good. If the stab is a measure of the strength of the rest of the airplane, then it is built like a tank.

So far I am very impressed with the kit. The drawings are light years ahead of the RV-4, with both inches and mm measurements. Nevertheless, what I am least impressed with is the drawings. I have already found errors in the drawings, and they are sometimes unnecessary difficult to read. 3D cad is several decades old by now and a few exploded views would make everything clear in an instant. I have also found one major bug: It doesn't say what kind of projection is used. It's American so american projection is used, but it is common practice to state it on each drawings.
  

Onex approved by the CAA and EAA

The start of building the Onex was approved by the CAA today. This means I can start building, and it also means the Onex kit is approved (no one has build a Onex in Norway before). The kit is examined by the EAA chapter of Norway, and they send a recommendation to the Civil Aviation Authority.