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Ordered the empennage kit! Faxed in my order this morning. I also ordered 100 3/32 clecos, 25 1/8 clecos and a scotchbrite wheel.

Guess I have to go out and buy a bench grinder now.

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Box 1 of 2 arrived and appears to be in excellent condition. This box contains the skins, spars and stiffeners.

Van's has the art of aircraft kit manufacturing and packing down to a science. Each piece is labeled with the name and barcode.

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Paul Schattauer asked me to stop by his hangar at PDK to pick up some tools and then head to my place to commence construction. Paul is very kind and generous with his time.

Prepared HS-609PP rear spar reinforcements by breaking all the edges and putting a larger radius one one edge so it lies flat against HS603PP. Match drilled and deburred the parts. Marked location for main rib and hinge brackets.

I had to blend out some scraped in the rear spar reinforcement because it got stuck in the bench grinder between the coarse wheel and the grinder body. Paul stressed the importance of blending out all nicks to relieve all the stress risers.

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My first rivet of my RV-7A came with the center hinge bracket using the pneumatic squeezer - what a treat that was to use. The picture shows it already attached to the rear spar after that was constructed but in reality we did these 6 rivets first.

And as you can see, the rear spar has been deburred, edged, prepped, primed and riveted. The air squeezer made quick work of those AD470AD4 rivets.

After Paul left, I proceeded to prepare the front spar angles. The belt sander and grinder made quick work of the tapters. Here you can see me preparing to bend them to the required 6 degrees. Came out pretty well after a few taps of the mallet.

And just for kicks, I had to see see it all put together.

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Cleco city. Installed top skin and match drilled it to the skeleton. Paul came over later on and helped me deburr all those holes as well as prepare the ribs and spars for priming.

Speaking of priming, Paul went the Mar-Hyde route. I agree with his philosophy and went to Auto Color, Inc to pick some up. The manager said they've been having problems with it becoming like silly string or not even spraying at all. So just in case I picked up a can of SEM brand self-etching primer. He said I could return the Mar-Hdye if it acted up. Which inevitably happened. The SEM stuff worked pretty well - nice coverage and seems pretty tough.

Preparation consisted of roughing up parts with Scotchbrite then cleaning with acetone and naptha. The primer dried pretty fast in the Georgia sun.

Notice my fancy spray booth.

One thing I noticed was after match drilling the right inner rib to the spar and the reinforcing angle was that on the top side very little edge distance remained. This troubled and perplexed me because I used the other side's inner rib to space the rivets on this rib. The other side came out great. Drilling it to #30 would clearly cause a problem so I decided to leave it as a #3 rivet.

Talking with Bruce at Vans he concurred with me. One reply from the Matronics email list from a two-time RV offender and EAA tech counseler said the same thing. Paul, after looking at the assembly, said it wasn't his favorite rivet but could live with it - especially since it's in an accesible area for inspection. Only Ken at Vans suggested ordering a new rib, front spar and angle.

After much consternation and using my own engineering judgement, I decided to add another #4 rivet on the top side and make a relief scallop in the rib. This should help share the load. And if the bottom hole should crack it would crack to the hole. The angle is also attached by many other #4 rivets on the top row.

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Why Vans has you start on the horizontal first baffles me. The vertical looks like a walk in the park in comparison. Before Paul came over, I assembled the frame and then match drilled the skins. Even had time to debur, dimple, prep and prime the frame. Here is the vertical with the skin clecod on.

Paul came over late in the afternoon and helped me rivet the vertical stabilizer rear spar together. I inadvertedly riveted the stiffener in place before countersinking the rivets on the bottom of the spar. So we machine countersunk for those rivets with the stiffener in place.

Next we proceeded to rivet the HS-707 middle nose rib in position on both sides. My first taste of riveting the skins. Came out really well but I can tell its almost an art.

This picture is after the nose rib was riveted and the frame slid in place.

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Ken Scott and Ken Krueger at Van's recommended (twice) replacing the front spar angle HS-710. Since I would have too many holes in the spar and inner rib, I also ordered those.

And on the other side of the stabilizer, I noticed the edge distances on the other HS-702 (front spar) were just over 1D on the innermost holes. Van's suggested just drilling between the bad holes and inserting rivets in the correct position. But I figured while I'm replacing the other side spar I might as well do the both at the same time.

Therefore my order was placed for two HS-702 (front spar), two HS-404 (inner nose rib), two HS-405 (main inner ribs), one HS-710 and one HS-714 reinforcing angles. The parts should be here Friday, Aug 20th so I can resume normal operations by the weekend.

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Received the new parts from Vans today. Paul came over around 730PM. We started out by tapering the ends of HS-710 and HS-714 and then bending them to the required 6 degrees. Next we made the required cuts and bends in the front spar then cleco'd everything together. In order to ensure centered rivets on the spar, we drew centerlines on the spar. This is what I should have done the first time. We needed to pull the front spar back a hair in order to center the rivets.

After installing the skins, I match drilled the skin to the spar. All rivet holes in the spar look great now!

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Before Paul came over, I made quick work of deburring and dimpling the vertical stabilizer skin. After doing that I primed it with SEM.

Paul arrived and we got to work on the VS skin. My brand new Sioux rivet gun was acting up so we switched to his tried and true rivet gun. I gave it a go but all five of my rivets were drillers - I never had enough downward force on the gun. In my mind I was wondering if I would ever pick up the skill! So Paul riveted while I bucked.

We used #4 length rivets instead of the 3.5, therefore my rivet heads are a little taller. It all worked out and looks good.

After Paul left, I put the inner ribs back on the horiztonal stabilizer. I was dreading drilling them to the spar and reinforcing angles. Not wanting to repeat my performance of a few days earlier, I made sure I marked and checked a lot before I drilled. In the end, it all came out fairly well... edge distances are maintained throughout. Looks a lot better and I can sleep easier at night.

After getting everything set up, I disassembled the parts and prepared them for riveting to the skin tomorrow. This consisted of deburring, dimpling and priming the spars, ribs and angles.

Here's some shots of where my holes ended up. I like it.

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yeah! my first real accomplishment of the project - something that looks like it belongs on the airplane. This morning I hand squeezed the remaining rivets on the VS. Man, those look nice. The vertical stabilizer was complete in no time.

Paul stopped by before he went to burn some gas in N808PS, his RV-8. We cleco'd up the front spar and riveted on the angles. After installing the left HS skin, he gave me a quick intro into riveting on skins. Based on the performance from the previous day, I was nervous about riveting on the skins by myself. He watched as I did a few and said I was good to go. It felt pretty good and went really smoothly. I was happy with my performance with the rivet gun. Paul went off to see Hal down at Brookbridge and I finished up the skins myself.

Here's the inside of the skins...

The final step on the stab - riveting on the rear spar. I called Paul and asked him to stop by to take a look at my skin riveting work. He said that if I felt comfortable with my work then by all means rivet on the rear spar. This is sort of like the step of no return - riveting on the rear spar means that you can't access the rivets in the center. I took my flashlight and did a little quality inspection of my own. All looked pretty good but I re-did about four.

After giving myself the mental OK, I went about riveting on the rear spar. Hand squeezing these was easy bu there were a lot to do.

Starting to look like an airplane...

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Made the rudder stiffeners tonight. Thought I was going to dread this task since I didn't have a band saw. It went pretty easily by trimming away some metal with the snips then finishing up on the belt sander. I also used the Vixen file to make the angle straight.

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Deburred all the stiffeners, clecod them all to the skins and then match drilled them to the skin. Started removing the blue plastic on the rudder skins in preparation for deburring and dimpling. There's lots of holes on this rudder!

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Chuck and I prepared the rudder skins for riveting by deburring and dimpling. The stiffeners themselves were dimpled then primed. It was too late to get more primer for the skins. I had just enough to do a few rivet lines on the skins.

I tried my hand at back-riveting a stiffener to the skin but I quickly found out that I was not the best at this art. I stopped at 3 rivets. It probably had something to do with using longer rivets than is required. The callout is for 426AD3-3 rivets but Van's only shipped 3.5 length. So I might try to make it to Aircraft Spruce tomorrow and pick up some shorter length rivets. I only elongated one hole in drilling out the bad rivets so I'll have to place an oops rivet there (1097).

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I told myself I was going to master back riveting. Pretty easy once I got the technique out. Reading tips on the Matronics list helped. Got all the stiffeners back riveted to the skins today. Only had to drill out a handful of rivets because they were leaned over.

Paul later asked if I wore glasses or have astigmatism. The answer is yes to both but I only wear my glasses to fly. (be thankful of that!) He said my tendency is not to hold the drill or rivet gun perfectly level at times because of my astigmatism hence my sometimes leaned over rivets.

After getting the stiffeners on, I headed out to Stone Mountain for our RC club meeting. Only to find out it wasn't til tomorrow!

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Deburred and dimpled the rudder skins, deburred and dimpled the rudder spars and ribs, and primed all rudder parts before Paul came over. Since I didn't have any experience with double flush rivets on the trailing edge, I asked Paul for some guidance.

The rudder on his RV-8 has a bent trailing edge so we were in uncharted territory. He suggested I get some aluminum angle from his shop and clamp it on the trailing edge to keep it straight.

After returning from PDK, I started riveting the rudder together. I used the pneumatic squeezer with longeron yoke on almost all the #4 rivets. All the small rivets were set with the hand squeezer.

The only deviation was using Cherry Max rivets on the counterbalance rib. I originally had #4 rivets in there but the heads weren't perfectly flat against the spar. Somehow during the course of drilling them out I enlarged the hole slightly. Therefore I used the Cherry Max rivets to compensate.

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Before riveting on the other rudder skin, I had to make a shim for the rudder brace. The holes didn't line up exactly and I was left with about a .100 gap between the rudder horn brace and the rudder horn. Using some scrap Paul gave me, I made up a shim which fits perfectly.

I read on the Matronics list that this part sometimes doesn't line up. And in the past it was the rite of passage because it just came as a flat sheet which had to be fabricated by the builder.

You might be able to see the shim in the last picture.

Riveting on the other skin was painless. Then it was time for the tricky part of the rudder build (per the Van's builder manual). Paul's aluminum angle he gave me was quite huge and I didn't want to destroy his piece by drilling tons of holes in it. So I went to the Depot and picked up some 1 1/2 by 1/8 thick angle. I clamped it and match drilled it using the skins as a guide. The AEX wedge was removed so I didn't destroy that in the process. Basically I marked the holes then completed them once it was off the rudder.

After drilling and deburring it, the angle was clamped with everything in place. I used 30 min epoxy to hold everything (hey a radio control guy is never without 30 min epoxy). While the epoxy set I ran over to PDK to get a #10 countersink from Paul's hangar.

I followed Van's directions and set every tenth rivet or so and always checked for straightness. Everything was perfectly straight and I continued to back rivet. I ended up with a quite true trailing edge and pretty decent looking double flush rivets.

I left the counterbalance and tip rib for last. The lead weight had to be trimmed a little to clear the rivets. After getting it to lie flat, I drilled the rear bolt hole. Stupid me forgot to dimple the counterbalance rib for the #10 bolt so I used a #10 countersink.

The countersink wandered a bit and I ended up with an enlarged hole. The bolts aren't perfectly flush but I figure I can work on this area during the fiberglassing time. The weight isn't going anywhere so I decided to leave it as it is.

Just an obligatory shot of the finished product!

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How many stiffeners can a RV have? Tonight I trimmed the stiffeners to spec for the right elevator. Not too hard, just follow the trim guidelines. On my first one I made the taper on stiffener D on the wrong side, so I'll have to remake this part. I reversed it thinking that the one hole you have to match on the stiffener goes on the forward side of the elevator. It goes on the aft side. You'll notice it when you see that one hole isn't drilled in the stiffener. This part goes toward the rear of the elevator.

Watch out for the note to make stiffeners J, K, L and from stiffeners D, E, and F respectively.

Pictures will come as soon as I download them from my camera.

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Took the extra aluminum sheet they give you in the emp kit to work today to see if we could remake stiffener D since I put the taper on the wrong side. We have all the tools and machines one needs here at Delta but of course they are airliner, not RV, sized. Finding a bending brake with the right radius took a little while.

Chuck helped me debur and dimple the right elevator skin. The stiffeners and skin were primed and made ready for riveting. Having a helper is really handy - you need an extra set of hands to hold the skin back while you dimple or rivet.

Next, we back riveted the lower stiffeners to the skin. The top side will have to wait for another day (probably Saturday).

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Chuck assisted me in back riveting the stiffeners to the right elevator skin. Then we prepared the ribs and spars so that we can rivet the whole thing tomorrow. No surprises here.

Chuck helped me bend the trailing edge. I used an 8' 2x6 from Home Depot cut to 44 and 52 inches then hinged together. The bend came out very nicely. Just be sure to get the trailing edge positioned correctly.

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Before riveting the skin on, I riveted on the reinforcement plates on the spar and the nutplates on top of those. I found out it was best to buck the rivets on the nutplates. For some reason, the pneumatic and hand squeezers had a hard time getting the right leverage to squeeze the rivets.

Next, Chuck and I riveted the tip rib and counterbalance rib together. All these rivets were bucked.

Finally, the ribs were riveted to the spar per the plans. Don't forget to use flush rivets on the inner rib because the elevator control horn lies on top of it. With the skeleton complete, we were ready to attach the skin.

Before riveting the skelton to the skin, you are to prepare the counterbalance and counterbalance skin. After positioning the lead weight, we easily drilled the two holes in the front for the number 10 screws. Don't forget to dimple the ribs for the screw (I had to run to PDK to get the correct dimple die from Paul's hangar).

The directions instruct you to trim about 5/8 inch of lead since this elevator half is lighter than the other. Chuck managed to remove the excess lead using a hacksaw and various files without too much difficulty.

Here is the final product after the skin was riveted on. We didn't tighten the screws because the washers Van's includes are way too big for the number 10 screws.

The right elevator was completed in no time. All the rivets that attach the skin can be hand squeezed. No problems were encoutered here. Just be sure to use the correct length rivet, especially on the holes that go through more than two layers of metal.

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Fabricated the stiffeners for the left elevator. As a consequence, there are no more stiffeners to make for the forseeable future! Here's me putting the taper on a stiffener.

Deburred and dimpled the stiffeners. Deburred the skin after removing the blue plastic.

The instructions state to rivet on the reinforcement plate (E-615PP) the same time you back rivet the stiffeners to the skin. The instructions don't say to rivet on the nutplates before attaching the piece to the skin. So I thought the most opportune time would be to do it now.

Here's the plate with the nutplates on. Don't forget to countersink for the flush rivets.

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My wife, Janet, helped me dimple the elevator skin by holding the top and bottom out of the way of each other. Then I prepared the skin for priming by using Scotchbrite pad and a good cleaning. Followed up by priming the right elevator skin and lower stiffeners. Have everything ready for Chuck to help me back rivet the stiffeners on - hopefully tomorrow.

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Chuck helped me back rivet the stiffeners and reinforcing plate to the skin. Next, we bent the trailing edge using the hinged 2 by 6s.

After that we worked on the elevator frame - match drilling the spar reinforcement plates, the counterbalance ribs, drilling the holes in the lead counterbalance weight, and match drilling the spar to the skin.

We wrapped up the night by pondering the best method to bend the tabs.

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Now to the tricky part that many people have warned about. Here's how Chuck and I accomplished this task. We made a triangle block from a piece of 1 x 2 inch wood then placed it inside with double sided tape. You can see the rest of the process.

It worked really well!

Before riveting the understructure we deburred, dimpled and primed the parts.

Since we bucked all the rivets on the right elevator half understructure, we did the left the same way as well. Worked out really well and went quickly. I wanted to get all the two person rivets out of the way tonight so I can rivet on the skin tomorrow.

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A few last details before the skin goes on. Here is the inner rib showing the flush rivets being used so that the control horn can lie on top of it. Once the understructure is complete the skin is next.

The skin is fairly straightforward. Make sure to rivet the two rivets in the counterbalance skin to the main skin before you put the understructure in, otherwise you'd have to use blind rivets.

A little dab of RTV on the rear of the stiffeners helps reduce chattering of the parts due to vibration.

Mounting the elevator trim servo is very straightforward. Just use the dimensions shown on the plan to align the brackets.

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Chuck took the trim tab to his place on Friday night to make the forming blocks for the bends. He did a great job on the bends. Assembling the trim tab is very straightforward. Setting the rivets on the lower portion was accomplished using the pneumatic squeezer with the longeron yoke. I did them one at a time and moved the clecos after each one. I only had to re-do two because they were not set straight.

Here's one area in which to pay special attention. I took my time and it came out pretty nicely. I used a piece of aluminum angle set on the trailing edge to align the trim tab.

I drilled the first hole in the hinge at the location specified on the plans (trim tab side, outboard edge). Then I drilled the holes on the trim tab side a little at a time making sure my alignment was still good. I basically repated the process for the other side.

Once the holes were dtilled, I set a few rivets to hold everything in place. I didn't do them all because most will need to be bucked. If you use a squeezer then it can bend the hinge and that's not good!

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I used the shear in Paul's hangar to cut some stips of .025 alclad about 0.5 inch wide. At home I roughed them up with some sandpaper, cleaned them, then epoxied them onto the fiberglass tip on the left elevator.

I drilled the holes to No 40 and noticed that my edge distances near the front of the tip are about .18 inch. The fiberglass tips are fully seated so there is not much I can do. The tips are primarily cosmetic and the metal strips will help hold the rivets firmly.

I only had enough clamps to epoxy the strips on the left side.

Had a hard time using any of my squeezers to set the rivets on the trim tab hinge so I am waiting for help to buck those rivets.

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Today Chuck and I attempted rolling the leading edge on the right elevator. We used a 1 inch dowel and some not-so-strong duct tape (it's black in color). We only managed to get nice bends on the smallest or outboard section. The other sections didn't come out so well.

Will wait to call Paul and get his advice.

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I was having the hardest time figuring out how to squeeze the rivets on the trim tab hinge, both on the trim tab itself and the elevator. I followed Van's directions but that leaves you in an ackward position to squeeze those flush rivets. I even tried bucking the rivets with Chuck but that wasn't the best of ideas.

So I called in the excellent help of Paul. Earlier in the day we talked about making a stand-off for the thin nose yoke. While he was driving to my house I went to Home Depot to see what I could find. Here's what I came up with.

I bought a cheap cap screw, cut off the threads and polished both sides. Then I CA'd (superglue) it to the yoke and it worked great. The rivet came out nicely.

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Chuck came over to help with the leading edge again. This time we used some 1.25" PVC and vise grips and real duct tape. The radius was a little better and we got pretty decent results.

Before we closed the halves we used the edge rolling tool.

In the end, we were never able to make the center section top and bottom lie flat. In fact, we put extra blind rivets centered between the original holes in the middle section. The first and last sections came out nicely. Understanding this is all cosmetic and the seams would be hidden, I was pretty happy with the end result.

The next two (left elevator and rudder) should go faster now that we have an idea of how to do it.

A neat idea I picked up on Sam Buchanan's builder site.

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Well, you would think the second and third leading edge rolls would go smoother than the first.

We started with a 1.25 inch (inner diameter PVC pipe) but decided the outside diameter was slightly large. A trip to the Home Depot yielded a 1 inch inside diameter, 1.25 inch outside diameter pipe. This is about the right size to make most of the bends.

We started with the smallest piece on the outboard of the elevator and worked our way a section at a time on the bottom of the elevator. We touched up the smallest, outboard section with a once inch dowel to get a slightly tighter radius.

Next we used the edge rolling tool on the top skin.

Here's where frustration set in - we accidentally placed the pipe on the smallest section on the top skin in the wrong place. When we rolled it forced the bottom skin leading edge to crimp right at the spar! Ooops! Not good.

We proceeded to roll the rest of the top skin taking serious note to not repeat what happened just a few minutes earlier.

We did the best we could to remove the crimp or crease near the spar and here's how it turned out. The small section was becoming work hardened so we ended up with what is shown. Not too bad in the final analysis... it's on the bottom and is in the smallest section of leading edge. But we know it's there.

A little filler before paint and you will never notice.

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Getting anxious for the QB to arrive, so I thought I'd get back in the swing of things.

Trimmed 1.1 inches of the stabilizer skin for clearance of the counterbalance. Also trimmed the rear spar to allow for movement of the control horn.

Attempting to hang the elevators by yourself using bolts can be frsutrating. So I bought some 3/16 brass rod from Home Depot and fabricated hinge alignment pins - similar to what Cleaveland Tool sells. This makes life much easier!

Just to show the elevators mounted. They swing free and through. I did have to back out the rod end bearings one full turn in order to clear the pop rivets in the leading edge.

Still have to drill the hole through the control horn for the center bearing. Purchased a .250 OD, .140 ID metal bushing from Home Depot to do this step at a later time.

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The big boxes are here! They were offically here on Wednesday the 12th but my very generous coworkers and I scheduled to pick it up today. We rented a 16' trailer and headed to ABF. You can tell that's a union operation because they operated on their own time. It took about 1 hr from check in to them placing the crates on the trailer. The trailer was just big enough.

According to the ABF website, the kit made the journey via: Aurora, OR - Portland, OR - Ontario, OR - Salt Lake City, UT - Green River, UT - Albuquerque, NM - Weatherford, OK - Little Rock, AR - Atlanta, GA.

Back at the house, we slid the wing box off first then tackled the fuse. Nothing out of the ordinary and the plane arrived in excellent shape.

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Spent a while doing the final trim of the leading edge cutout (making sure it was equal distance from the spar and wingtip). Then I installed the light fixture and plexi cover.

Used a knife to score the plexi and break it free. Then a lot of time on the scotchbrite wheel to get it rough cut. This one came out a lot better with no cracking (and this time it was kept inside my nice warm shop the whole time). The fit is pretty good with a slightly loose skin at the bottom.

And a my workshop on a chilly night in Atlanta.

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While waiting to hear from Van's about the wing spar repair, I kept working on the seats. I deburred and primed the seat back brace and riveted them to the fuse. After all hinges were aligned on the seat, I riveted the pilot seat together.

When aligning the hinges on the seats, I was very careful to make sure the seats are the same distance from the fuselage sides. I've seen some pics where the seats were not the same distance.

Here's me riveting F-705K plate and shim to the fuselage and the pilot seat installed. Still have to rivet the co-pilot seat together.

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Completed steps 1 to 5 of the electric aileron trim install. You have to remove 2 nutplates in the fuselage before you can proceed.

Here you can see me centering the attach plate so I can match drill the two holes (on other side). And the attach plate installed in the fuse.

Shown last is the center bearing which needs a .0625 hole drilled for the cotter pin. Haven't drilled it yet but there's little blocks shoved in there to keep the washer in place.

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Always like taking a half day of work off so I can wait for big airplane parts to arrive. ABF brought a truck with a lift gate so the driver and I could get it off the truck.

Here's what's inside! Doesn't look like $5000 worth of parts, does it? I had the crate emptied and dismembered by the time my wife got home from work.

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It's done - again! It's hard getting the spacing just right. I basically drilled one hole, marked the next and worked from thre. Be sure to know which kind of nutplate goes where.

I still have to attach all the nutplates to the angle. I'm not sure if I'll make this part again for cosmetic reasons. I want all my holes centered... there's only one nutplate that's not centered and that's purely appearance.

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Back in the empennage constuction phase, I used Cherrymax rivets on the nose rib. My building partner, Chuck (A&P), noticed shortly thereafter there was a gap between the nose rib and spar. Good eyes.

So before mounting the tail on the airplane, I *finally* got around to drilling those suckers out. I've been fearing that job because of the steel retaining ring. But it actually went very smoothly by using my Dremel to grind off the steel ring. Then I was able to punch out the steel plug and continue with removing the rest of the rivet which is aluminum.

You can see the missing Cherry's here. This is after we mounted the tail. Still have to make a shim and re-rivet. Look on the right side of the picture.

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After completing the empennage about 1.5 years ago, I still had to drill the holes in the control horns on the elevator. It went very painlessly - just follow the directions. I made a drill bushing by getting 5 pieces of K&S tubing and a #42 drill bit as a pilot hole. I then enlarged the holes to 3/16 with a center drill.

When all that is done, you determine which horn is more aft and drill a hole through both of them, making sure they are clamped tightly.

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Was able to rivet the fiberglass tips on the stab and elevators. Before I put the stabilizer tips on, I closed them with some 1/4 hobby plywood. Did some minor trimming before riveting them on for good with CS4-4 pop rivets. Will try to get some pictures soon.

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Finally... after like one and a half years. My dad was able to lend a hand by helping me roll the leading edge of the rudder. Used a 1" dowel with lots of duct tape.

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Temporarily mounted the vertical stabilizer and rudder to determine the gap between them (before I rivet on the tips). Also drilled the four holes through the lower portion of the vertical stab spar. Had to do some very minor trimming at the stab/rudder gap for proper clearance.

After that, I installed the fiberglass tip on the vertical stabilizer and rudder with the countersunk pop rivets. The aft most pop rivets on the rudder are just too long. So I'll have to find ones shorter than the CS-4-4. In the meantime, I used some T-88 epoxy on the aft portions of the fiberglass tip on the rudder.

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Trimmed the lower rudder fairing using the guidelines Van's give you. They were pretty close. Then I drilled it to the rudder itself.

Cut hole for the strobe light. Still have to glue the nuts in there.

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The past few days I've been doing a lot of work on the empennage fiberglass tips. Following the same path as Dan recommends on his site. Picked up some of the green-goop otherwise known as Evercoat Rage Gold as a filler. Seems to work pretty well and sets up really fast. Hopefully will get these done and primed soon. I'm trying to do as much work at home as I possibly can. Still haven't had a real work day at the hangar - primarily because my tools are still at home!

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Started to spray the empennage tips. Might have to take some pinhole filler to it to make it look halfway decent. You can still see the glass cloth in a few areas.

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Last night I put two blobs of T-88 epoxy in the lower rudder fairing for the tail light. After it cured, I drilled small diameter pilot holes and used 4-40 wood screws to attach the Whelen position & nav light. Seemed to work pretty well.

After that, I pop riveted the fairing on and sanded it a little. Will fill and prime later.

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Just some more filling, sanding and priming on the rudder and vertical stab tips. The primer is still wet... that's why it looks so good!

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Just finishing up this task at home. More sanding, filling, sanding and priming. Should be ready to take the pieces to the airport tomorrow.

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Finally finished the fiberglass tips on all the empennage pieces. Glad that is done (until it's time to paint and then I'll probably work on them some more). And a few days earlier, a visitor to the hangar helped me buck some rivets on the HS spar which I never was able to squeeze. Thanks Brian! This will allow me to install the HS for good. Which I did... hopefully!

Then I decided to fit the fiberglass fairing. Wanted to do this now because you have to install nutplates on the horizontal and vertical. It will be easier if the vertical was removed to do this... so I temporarily installed it. Then I drilled the fairing.

It fit very well on the left side. The right side will need some minor work as you can see in this pic.

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Now that the stab is on for good (hopefully), I can route the pitch trim wires. I wrapped it in some sheathing which should protect it from the opening in the elevator. And it's two wires (each three conductor shieleded) so there's some extra protection, too.

Also installed a rudder stop just like Jeff did. It's a slick setup.

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The information presented on my website is for reference only and is meant to satisfy FAA requirements to document this aircraft's construction.
Comments that appear on this website should not be interpreted as instructions on how to build any aircraft. Please consult with the manufacturer.

2004 Scott Will.