Finally I’m starting to get to some match drilling on the horizontal stabilizer. It’s taken quite a bit longer than I expected to get everything prepped.
The first thing I did was remove some of the material on the rib flange. It’s actually tough to see where I removed material in the pic below. That’s how you know it was a clean modification.
It was a solid amount of work to get the inboard ribs match drilled. I installed/uninstalled them within the skin several times. Fortunately, the plans are pretty clear in what you are supposed to do. This is a luxury they don’t offer in later stages of the build. You can see how I’ve got everything clamped in place. The rib’s flanges are flush with the edge of the skin.
Here is the final-drilled ribs, for the left side of the horizontal stabilizer. There are still a few holes to add to the left side, but the hard part is done.
Now that this is done, I’ve got to do all the same work for the right side. It should go faster since I know what I’m doing.