March 16, 2004

While waiting for my new rudder skins to ship,  (YES, it turns out Van's shipped them UPS, oversize,
just like I thought they could.  Shipping/Handling/Packaging was about $50.  Skins were $38.75 each)
I'm working on the Horizontal Stab.  Feels great to be making progress today.  The past 8 hours or so I
was deburring the H.Stab ribs.  That SMALL pile you'll see the picture of down the page, had taken me
about 6-8 hours to get just over 1/2 way through!!!  45 minutes per rib.  Finally I called Van's and Tom
told me I was correct that if I took things to that extreme, I'd go insane.  He said that 20% of the people
don't even deburr their parts, and that the parts ship in better condition than many manufacturers actually
assemble their plane with.  So, I should deburr any large nicks, and any sharp edges that I'd cut
myself on, but then BUILD it!  That bit of encouragement really helps.  I did do a great job deburring
my spar and doubler, since anything that important deserves some extra time, but for things not under
a lot of stress, I'm going to do a good but much simpler job...saving ME a lot of stress.











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