Countersunk holes in fairing Riveted nutplates onto vertical stabilizer Riveted nutplates onto horizontal stabilizer Installed tail light onto rudder fairing
First I had to temporarily mount the horizontal and vertical stabilizers Bent the lower empennage fairings per the plans Trimmed the upper empennage fairing to size Drilled the upper empennage fairing to the horizontal and vertical stabilizers
Today I finished the contour standing and filler for the horizontal tip fairings
The fairings after some sanding and body filler
Today I started glassing in the horizontal stabilizer tip fairings. I started by cutting foam to match the shape of the fairings. Then I glassed them in using a couple of layers of glass cloth. Once that cured, I applied a thick coating of epoxy/micro-balloons that I could sand and shape into the final contour. Tomorrow I’ll do the final contour sanding and use a little bit of bondo/body filler to for the finishing touches.
Today I was able to get both of the elevator tip fairings installed. Then I temporarily mounted the elevators onto the horizontal stabilizer so I could trim and fit the horizontal stabilizer tip fairings. Tomorrow I’m going to do some glass work and glass the ends in for a nice finish.
Right elevator fairing riveted on Left elevator fairing taped in position for drilling Holes drilled in the left elevator fairing Left elevator fairing riveted on Fitting and drilling the horizontal stabilizer top fairings
Tonight I started off by tapping the 4-40 holes in the tail light bracket from last night. Then I moved onto trimming, drilling and riveting on the top rudder fairing. Then I got started on the right elevator fairing. After trimming and drilling the fairing it was time to countersink the holes in the fiberglass. I got a little overzealous with the countersink and ended up wallowing out some of the holes to large…so the blind rivets weren’t going to grab on some of the holes.
Tonight I drilled the holes in the lower rudder fairing and mounting tabs on the rudder. Then I installed the nutplates onto the mounting tabs on the rudder. After that I riveted and epoxied the mounting bracket for tail light in to the back of the rudder fairing.
Holes drilled in the rudder fairing and the nutplates holes drilled out in the mounting tabs Riveting the nutplates to the mounting tabs Holes drilled out in the back of the rudder fairing to mount the tail light The mounting bracket riveted and epoxied to the back of the rudder fairing
Tonight I squeezed a quick hour in a trimmed the lower rudder fairing.
Started to trim the fairing Test fitting the fairing to the bottom of the rudder
Today I match drilled the horizontal stabilizer to the aft fuselage. That about does for aft fuselage work for now. I’ll be working on the fiberglass tips for the next few weeks until the wings arrive
The horizontal stabilizer mounted to the aft fuselage Had to use the angle drill in order to drill the lower holes A proud man!
Today Zak came over to help out. We spent the afternoon drilling the holes in elevator horns. It was slow going but we did a good job. We had to machine a drill guide on the lathe to make sure we drilled the holes in the horns perpendicular.
Zak putting the bolts and nuts on to mount the elevator so we could drill the holes Machining the drill guide on the lathe