A Tail (Tale?) of Two Riveters

Really, it could be 'tail' or 'tale.' There were two of us riveting a tail, and it's quite a tale. And it involved two different riveting tools.

Co-pilot Egg and I hauled the vertical stab over to the hangar for the final riveting of the skin to the skeleton.



After my recent experience with the manual rivet puller, I was keen to try out the pneumatic riveter. What an amazing difference! Even Egg was able to pull rivets with the air puller.



What seemed to work best, though, was having her remove Clecos and place rivets while I followed behind pulling them:

It didn't take her long to learn that pulling Clecos is hard work. She'll be sore tomorrow!

It sure looks good all riveted up, though:



The rivets didn't all go in easily, but there were only two holes that needed a small, quick pass with the #30 bit to convince the recalcitrant rivets to go in.

Next: the rudder.