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My RV-8 Horizontal Stabilizer and SB 14-01-31

jdmunzell

Well Known Member
Question for all those affected by this SB. I have yet to install my horizontal stabilizer to the fuselage, so the entire structure, while completed years ago, is free and clear of the aircraft.

This SB looks pretty detailed and involves drilling out a lot of rivets and undoing a bit of construction! I'm not crazy about doing that on a "new" structure with no cracks anywhere.

I'm debating whether to just go ahead and do it before it's installed and be done with the SB or just install as is, and comply with the SB requirements during inspections.

What's the consensus amongst everyone and particularly the DARs and inspectors, since this covers all the -6, -7, -8 airplanes..??
 
I bought the SB repair kit but have yet to install it on my 380 hour RV 8. I'm not looking forward to disassembling painted parts. So I watch it carefully. But if i was at your stage of construction, I would do the SB repair
 
I know someone who decided to install the SB kit before mounting his very nicely made HS to his fuselage. He ended up having to rebuild the HS because the process of drilling out all the rivets and replacing them resulted in out of spec holes and loss of edge distance in some cases. I haven't installed that SB yet and only will if I see cracks. If you've already built your HS and are happy with it, I'd leave it alone until you have to install it.
 
I did the install after paint but before final assembly with the fuse. Be careful, take your time and plan on about 12 hours. Not a difficult job. One less thing to be concerned about later.
 
After the fact.

We did it after all the facts. Glad we did as it would have messed up a new paint job if we had done that one as well. Not hard, just take your time and you will get there. Hope this helps, R.E.A. III #80888
 
I applied the SB to a completed, flying, unpainted (but polished) aircraft. Given the option, I would rather not have taken a flying aircraft out of service, and risked damage to parts during the extra handling and disassembly required.

Applying it now before it goes together will be easier in the long run.
 
I am getting close to packing up and heading to the airport with my 7. I did the SB on my HS. It took more than the 12 hours that BLAIN did.

I figured that (1) sooner or later it needed to be done, (2) it makes the spar stronger in shear in the weaker region between the skin and the center, and (3) my skills are going to wither as time goes by. Last -it was going to bother me flying with it unfinished.

Suggestions - not new - take your time, take extra care to see your work while drilling out the rivets. A vee stand was extremely helpful. Be prepared for installation of larger rivets or cherrymax as specified by the instructions (excellent btw). Think carefully about how to buck the rivets. Take care in the match drilling as it is a confined space and good alignment leaves smaller holes. Get real comfortable with your offset rivet set.

All said, I had one rivet that had to be increased in size due to drilling out the old rivet.
 
My plane isn't finished yet. Figured I better just do it now before regretting it later. Couldn't get the edge distance on the reinforcing plates.
 
I am getting close to packing up and heading to the airport with my 7. I did the SB on my HS. It took more than the 12 hours that BLAIN did.

Family out of town, no breaks, no interruptions but completed in one day.

I like the fix Vans designed. As mentioned before it is well worth the piece of mind.
 
SB

Just doing mine today - about 10 hours of drilling out rivets. It took a lot longer than I thought. The -3 rivets were easy, but the -4 rivets were really tricky (at least for me). I'm not that good at drilling out rivets, so I did the -3 rivets with a #40 to make sure I didn't touch the original hole - even that was not easy. Surprising how hard it is to keep a drill bit exactly on the middle of a rivet head!

One thing I don't quite understand - even with the cracks, it really looks like the chance of anything failing is close to zero - those HS-710 and HS-714 angles are beefy. I know that there is a good reason for this SB, or it would not exist, just saying that the original design sure looks strong enough.

Couple of business opportunities I saw there:

1) a mini camera that's really tiny and can mount to anything you are working on and give you a super-large macro image of the work - this would have helped me a lot
2) some kind of bushing or guide to keep a drill bit centered on either head of an AN470 rivet.

Update: Yves pointed this tool to me, which I didn't know about! http://www.cleavelandtool.com/Rivet-Removal-Tool/productinfo/RRT4/

RRT4-Large.jpg



I would have paid a lot of money for either of these today! Let's see if I can get the rest done in the next few nights. I'll feel better knowing the SB is applied.
 
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Us too.

We took ours back off before the aircraft even had its first flight. The job took time, but knowing that it is done and we have it in the log book we feel a lot safer with the extra spar reinforcement. We don't fly all that hard anymore and the modification may be over-kill for us, but the next guy in 15-20 years will know it is there and feel better about it too. The only mod. I have not done is the wing rear spar bracket reinforcement for the Al. attachment bracket. Right now we just inspect it every 3-4 months as we have the inspection plates off. That one would take a little more help and need to be done very carefully. It is well with-in our skill set, but as I said we don't fly that hard anymore. Smooth loading and unloading with only +4, -2 is about as hard as we go these days. We have more fun just going places and seeing the sights.
Just what we did. Yours, R.E.A. III # 80888
 
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