Outboard Tail Rib - 1.7 hours

Today I was able to get the outboard tail rib installed per section 53 of the manual¹. This had turned out to be a bit of a challenge because, before installing the tail rib, I test fit it with the diagonal cross brace (tension brace between the machined tail rib and the outboard spar tip that passes through the outboard tail rib) and realized that the cross brace wouldn’t line up with the cutout in the hole. It was pretty far off so I ended up getting a new tail rib from CubCrafters. This new one was much better but still didn’t quite line up. After playing around with it a bit (and some clamps), I realized that I could bend it down slightly after riveting and make it work. I also needed to flatten the part of the tail rib that overlapped with the center rib some so that it could be installed a bit lower. The rivets between the tail and center rib, if installed with the tail rib held in position, would also help hold it in the proper spot.

That’s what I ended up doing and it turned out pretty nicely. When all was said and done, the top of the tail rib “flange” that sits up against the spar was slightly below the top of the spar on the inboard edge and about lined up on the outboard side. With the bow tip clamped approximately in place, I centered the tail rib in it vertically and clamped the overlap of the tail and center ribs to hold it there. I then drilled, dimpled, and riveted the overlap (top and bottom) 1/4” from the front edge. This all resulted in the tail rib being held in pretty good alignment and the brace fitting pretty nicely.