Category Archives: Section 12, Empennage Fairings

The tedious work of sanding, fitting, aligning, and build-up continue on the fiberglass tips for the elevator and horizontal stabilizer.  The nice part about fiberglass is you can add or subtract material as desired.  The down side is having to wait at least 24 hours between operations.

Here is a case of trying to level the HS tips, then fill as needed with resin/glass beads (white) or Awl Grip fairing compound (pink).  The same operations apply to the elevatore tips.  Sand, fit, fill, rinse, repeat…

The left shows backing washers clecoed for superglue attachment to the elevator tips. These are not required, as these holes are supposed to be countersunk, then pop riveted onto the elevator.  However, experience has shown the fiberglass gets very thin after the countersink operation, so this attempt should reinforce the connection.

… and while waiting for the next round 0f build-up to cure, I started adding the nutplates to the horizontal stabilizer.  Eventually these will fasten a custom fairing which sits between the horizontal and vertical stabilizers.

More sanding, fitting and filler on the fiberglass parts. Plus the addition of nut plates at various locations to complete some of the parts.

This photo shows the lower rudder fairing with #6 nut plates soft riveted into place. I made this fairing removable, as the AeroLED Suntail nav/strobe light wiring and electonics still needs to be added. A machined spacer from Cleaveland Tools provides a stable surface for fastening the Suntail afterwards.

Final filler and smoothing on the bottom rudder skins.  These parts hold the bottom fairing.

Nut plates for #6 screws are also install on the vertical stabilizer top.  These will allow removal of the top to access the VOR bracket made earlier.

The bottom of the vertical stabilizer skins also takes #6 nut plates.  These holes will later be used to fasten the fairing which bridges  between the vertical and horizontal stabilizers.

This week was about sanding and fitting the rudder top and bottom fairings.

This shows the top fairing pop-riveted into position on the rudder.  The end cap with the lead counter-weight needed some additional material to match well with the VS top.

Plastic electrical tape is applied to keep the resin off unwanted parts.  Then the end cap is sanded and cleaned for fiberglass layers.  These are probably not necessary, but I wanted to ensure the overlapping metal parts are held rigidly in place (should help prevent cracking along the seam)

Multiple layers of fiberglass and resin are applied. Because the resin is quite fluid at the start, some droops down the lower face.  This will later be sanded smooth and covered with Awl Grip D8200 for the final finish.

The basement shop was also enhanced with a new single stage, 12.8cfm air compressor made in USA by Quincy. Next steps are get the electrician to wire a dedicated circuit, then fire up for plane building usage.

Further fitting the VS top and rudder bottom fairing were the activity for this week.

The VS top fairing did not fit properly in the metal opening.  Throughout this build I have found all the fiberglass parts to only be approximations, much work on proper alignment and sizing has been needed.   Here the rear profile is being sanded to shape and the back panel straightened to match the rudder top fairing.

The AeroLED Suntail NAV/strobe will be attached to the lower rudder fairing via a machined aluminum spacer purchased from Cleaveland Tool.  The fiberglass from the fairing at this point is fairly thin, so fabricating a backing plate for the six pull rivets was chosen. This photo shows interim progress.

After months of inactivity due to the new house move I am finally back to working on plane parts.

Moving day!  Here are photos for relocating many plane parts from the rented storage unit to my new basement workshop.  Outside temperatures this time of year are in the mid-90’s.  The basement has a dehumidifier with temperatures in the low-70s, humidity around 40% – perfect working conditions.

First action in the new shop was build a jig for the vertical stabilizer and bolt down to the workbenches.

The fiberglass part needs to cover the NAV antenna holder with enough space for easy assembly. These show the initial fitting, plus the bend antenna rods in position.  Nice.

Eric helps install the rudder linkages, then rough fit to the vertical stabilizer.  This was a provisional attachment to check fit/finish. Adjustments to the flex angles and VS skins are needed.

Fiberglass caps on the rudder top and bottom are next on the TO_DO list, plus finish filling the VS cap piece.