Jun 26, 2022     Rudder tail light wiring - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

What a simple job to do. Thirty minutes to put the rudder back on.....trying to line up three sets of bearings/bushings. Then 30 minutes trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. I attached the tail light to it's housing. Fed the wire without its connector through the rudder. Find access hole for wiring I cut into back of vertical stabilizer. Find the wire and plug for tail light in fuselage. Find my notes from months ago about which colored wires go with which colored wires via the connector. . Then carefully laid out my plan which necessitated soldering wires together to connect wires to the connector plug. Put some shrink wrap onto the wires before soldering. Once the soldering was done,...i realized I had very carefully and purposefully SCREWED up. I was trying to stagger the four connections so I wouldn't have a large blob of connections to fit through my tail access slot....two connections at one length and the other two at different length.....but, I put only a single piece of shrink tubing to cover two solder connections......That's not going to work. So a trip to Home Depot to get some electrical tape and then insulated joints with double wrap of electrical tape and shrink tubing to hold all in place.

  Jun 23, 2022     Tail inspection plate install - (5.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

"Simple" job took almost 5 hours to fit the inspection plates on/around the horizontal stabilizer. I had to make another cut on the panel I had completed. Directions were confusing as they offered three distinct ways to cut and fit around the elevator pivot. I had made the panel with the plan for the lease amount of cuts. Had to fit and remove 4-5 times on each side to locate mounting holes. Tried to be careful but messed up position on back-drilling upper horizontal row of holes....got them too low and didn't realize until all holes cut....oh well... screws and nutplates will still work....just not as secure as desired. Drilled all holes and place the Tinnerman nutplates. Panels removed and stored until absolute final assembly. Same with the inspection panels.
Everything cleaned up and put away in prep for next set of tasks.

  Jun 22, 2022     Rudder and horzontal stab mounted - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Mounted the horizontal stabilizer in preparation for fitting tail inspection panels. Had to briefly hang the painted rudder to see how it looked.

  Jun 14, 2022     Rudder painting - (4.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Painting of Rudder. Taped to paint bar and stripes on Rudder similar to tail painting of pre-WW II trainer aircraft. The dark blue shade for the vertical dark stripe is as depicted. The red paint from SW was supposed to be "stop light red" but originally came out salmon shade. I went back (this paint was used on SKi Patrol sign back in 2020) to have more tint to make it "red". I don't know how many dollops of tint were added until the paint looked "red". Came out looking great.

  Jun 13, 2022     Taping for rudder - (3.0 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

Drew on rudder to get 13 stripes (Red/white) each side. This to honor pre-WWII paint schemes for training planes. Have one side taped and 2 coats of red applied.

  Jun 07, 2022     Painting tail system - (12 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Multiple sessions to finish 2nd spray coat of Poly brush, then 2 coats of white base coat (SW Emerald white Satin) followed by 2 coats of yellow. Very disappointed in performance of the yellow paint (SW Resilience). Did the wings several months ago and still slightly tacky. After 3-4 days, newly painted parts are still tacky

  Apr 24, 2022     Leading and trailing edge finishing tapes - (6 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

All I was going to do was smooth the leading and trailing edge finishing tapes I placed yesterday....2 hours tops....yeah..right!!. Six hours later, I have smoothed all tapes on both pieces of horizontal tale. Then did last coat of Poly Brush over the finishing tapes. Took SIX hours. Still have to do some minor (I hope) smoothing after last application of Poly Brush to tapes
Only one more short strip of finishing tape to apply over a bonded metal angle over aft turtle deck area. I still have to paint the metal angle and turn fuselage at least 1/4 turn to install.
But 99.9% of fabric has been bonded and installed!! Yeah!!! Now all I have to do is spray 2 coats each of poly brush, white primer and color coats over all of fuselage, rudder, vertical and horizon stabilizer and elevator.

  Apr 23, 2022     Finishing tapes - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Trying to figure out how to apply bias cut finish tapes.....not as easy as it looks. Had 6 corners to do on horizontal stab and elevatgor. Applied first tape and secured about 2 inches using Poly brush. Allowed to dry for about an hour and then tried stretching and securing tape around my first corner. Came out terrible and I ripped off what I did. Tried again 6 more times. I took 5 corners to figure out how to do it correctly. I decided to use 4" bias cut to cover the entire width as I didn't have enough regular cut 4" tape to cover all leading and trailing edges. I finally determined to secure unstretched to straight portions within 1 rib of corner, then pulled tape around corner and secured tape just past corner. Had to hold tape in place while Poly brushed dried but then able to lay tape flatter and with less folds, bubbles and creases in straight sections when done in a separate Poly Brush application. I had to pull tension on tape with one hand while other fingers to smooth tape into applied Poly Brush and using brush to smooth tape into pink stuff. I tried butting two pieces of the Bias cut tape on straight end (to salvage short section of tape) but that didn't work well. The bias cut tape is very easy to distort when manipulating it.
For 5 of the corners and even some of the straight sections

  Apr 18, 2022     finish tapes - (5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Spent about 5.0 hours applying chord wise finish tapes on horizontal stab and elevator. Have some 4" bias tape on order but not yet arrived so can't finish leading or trailing edge tapes yet.

  Apr 17, 2022     Covering horizontal stabilizer and elevator - (18 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Lost count on hours to cover horizontal stabilizer and elevator......18 hours and still counting. Didn't get many pictures of horizontal stab covering but got several pictures of same process on elevator. Just....takes.....forever. Ironically, only spent about 30 minutes total actually gluing on fabric but several hours needed to prep metal skeleton, rough cut fabric to shape, partially bond fabric to the large, straight spar, fine time fabric edges, heat form around tubing, then after gluing, heat smoothing to remove wrinkles, stretch tighten fabric, apply poly brush, mark lines for finishing tapes.
I midst of this, I covered two 16 x 24" wooden picture frames. Thought I could did them quickly.......if 8 hours is quick.
Pictures represent about 5-6 work sessions over week and a half. (one week in Breckenridge for Powderfall for ski patrol)

  Apr 15, 2022     Supplies - (2.0 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

Broke down and ordered some VERY expensive 4" bias cut tape to cover corners of Horizontal stabilizer and elevator.
Also bought some more picture frames to cover with poly fiber process and paint to use as test pieces in sun for long term outside to see how my paint system holds up. 87KF will always be hangared so will use test panels to see how system ages with full sun. Had some other panels but wind blew away one of them....of course the most important one.

  Mar 31, 2022     Rudder covering - (10 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Three x 3-4 hour work sessions to cover the rudder. Used one piece joined on trailing edge. Only single layer of fabric on leading edge of rudder fiberglass former so laid up some 4",3" and 2" finishing tapes where potential for rudder to rub aft vertical stabilizer. I'm too cheap to buy a $60 roll of 4" bias cut finishing tape to go around the curves on the rudder, elevator and horiz stab. Tried to heat form regular 3" tape around bend on top of rudder. Gave up. Cut section off and placed a 3" regular tape and cut several darts both sides and heat smashed. Edge of finishing tape is NOT smooth around the finish line BUT fabric is NOT coming off. Plane will still fly well.

  Jun 30, 2021     Varnish on end caps - (1.0 hour) Category: Tail Feathers

Final varnish coats (three coats) on all end caps.

  Jan 18, 2021     End caps - (5.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Worked on end caps over several work sessions to fit the balsa wood blocks with 5 minute epoxy, then gross filling with Hysol, rough shaping, then re-filling with Super-Fil and more shaping. Also filled divots between ribs and frames and smoothed said items. Horizontal and vertical stabilizer are near ready for cover. Rudder, HS and elevator removed and stored. (Then decided to fit the tail access covers....should have left the horizontal stab on plane to determine positioning of tail covers.

  Jan 10, 2021     Tail end cap fillers - (6.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

This work done over couple of days and work sessions. Glued on pieces of Balsa wood couple of months ago. Filled gaps with Hysol. Used pocket knife to trimmed excess wood. When cured, used belt sander to rough finish end caps on horizontal stab, elevator and ....oops....forgot to do the rudder. Filled with blue colored Super-Fil and sanded again. Then went over all surfaces and joints between wood ribs and frame and used Super-fil to smooth transition.

  Jan 04, 2021     Trim position indicator - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Installed a trim position indicator for horizontal stabilizer. Had to mount small switch to mounted lug and used existing hole. Then had to glue on a metal tab about size of large popcicle stick to aft horizontal stab at pivot point that pushes trim position indicator button as stabilizer is raised/lowered

  Nov 18, 2020     Horizontal stab and elevator limited adjustment - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

30 minute job that I crammed into 2.5 hours. Kept screwing up. Clamp on elevator to hold level while elevator push rods adjusted to length per specificaitons. Then used phone again to measure elevator Up and Down limits using ladder for prop. Horizontal stab set to 1 5/16 inch, then stick held at 80 degrees to flat floor. Elevator control rods loosened and rod ends adjusted to length as documented...39 degrees up and 20 degrees down. Used an app on my phone for an electronic level and a ladder to support the elevator at desired location while limit adjustment made and jam nuts tightened.

  Nov 16, 2020     Balsa wood for tail tips - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

$6 for block of balsa wood that was cut down with jig saw and impromptu table saw with vise gripped, upside down jigsaw. Was suggested by several builders that balsa wood was better than the very friable foam. Cut rough fill pieces for all 6 tail surfaces and used masking tape to hold into position.

  Nov 16, 2020     rudder stop repair - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Had filed the fixed rudder stop too much and had 30 degrees deflection instead of desired 25 degree. Fabricated some steel strap blanks to fit on/over the fixed rudder stop on vertical stabilizer. Used phone app to measure rudder deflection and placed the steel blanks in appropriate place and used super glue to secure in place. Rudder removed and single 1/8" hole drilled. Rudder replaced and confirmed proper placement for new, fabricated rudder stop blanks. More super glue to secure. Both holes drilled and then updrilled to 3/16". Order some AN bolts for the 4 drilled holes. Plan is to bond (Hysol) and bolt the addition/repair.

  Nov 13, 2020     Problem here - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Got the trim motor connected then I connected the elevator rods. Now control stick will move the elevator. Rudder cables not yet connected to rudder so I went to tail and moved surfaces by hand. Seems to be a problem....see photo....can you see the problem. I had very carefully filed and filed on rudder stop "Y" at bottom of vertical stabilizer on tail aspect to get a 30 degree side to side rudder limit. Photo shows a problem. I went to instruction manual. OOOPS!!!! Was only supposed to be 25 degrees. Don't know how I missed that one. Would have saved me a couple of hours of filing to stop at 25 degrees. Took awhile to figure out a "fix" but came to me fairly quickly. Got the parts today: a 3/4" wide steel strap and some metal cutting jigsaw blades (maybe I could just use my hacksaw)

  Nov 09, 2020     mounting horizontal stab and elevator - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Mounted the horizontal stabilizer and elevator. Simple but took about 2.0 hours to coax all the bolts (even temp bolts) to mount the two parts. This was after storing last wing on ceiling and moving fuselage around. As parts are added, fuselage getting heavier.

  Nov 04, 2020     Finished rudder tried on - (.7 hour) Category: Tail Feathers

Stripped off all of masking tape used to hold rudder fairing in place and installed on vertical stabilizer. Now seems to be plenty of room for fabric on front of rudder and back of vertical stabilizer.

  Oct 30, 2020     Speedster tail cuffs - (11.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Acquired multiple wood parts for rib stiffeners, tail tips, sanding blocks and sand paper, thin metal wire and cold chisel for rudder cable cutting and whipping cut wire rope ends.
Sharp increase in COVID cases in EP area caused city to close non-essential businesses today for two weeks. Glad I went parts shopping yesterday. I have enough material/parts to keep me busy for week or so.
Instructions said "trim to fit and bond into place". Two items, 11.0 hours over three work sessions and counting. Trimming and fitting of speedster vertical stabilizer trailing cuff and rudder leading edge cuff has been very tedious. Parts on, off, trim wood ribs then repeat....again and again and again....couple of dozen times. Cutting the fiber glass parts was tricky using a bulky multi-purpose oscillating tool using a blade similar to one used to cut off an arm cast. Cutting worked OK but hard to cut a very accurate line, but the fiber glass trimmed easily using my metal files.

  Oct 25, 2020     Slider blocks - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

$30.00 for various small parts, replace broken drill, wood stiffener strips for warped false ribs, epoxy for strips. off-set drill attachment.
Spent couple of days with belt sander reduce size of polyethylene block to use as slider blocks on front edge of horizontal stabilizer. The trim for this plane is similar to J-3 cub and Mooneys as trim is a Jack-screw that moves the entire horizontal stabilizer instead of small trim tap. The sliders allow the front end of the horizontal stab to move up and down along metal guide bar with the electric trim motor with minimal wear/friction.
I neglected to get pictures of original block (one large piece) and the fitting process. Trying to get the holes drilled correctly with the correct amount of sliding block sticking out and no gaps with about 1.5 hour ordeal. Finally had to get a new drill (broke the only one of correct size) and also an off-set drill attachment. Only took about 5 minutes to actually install the parts that took almost 3.5 hours to trim and fit.

  Oct 22, 2020     stabilizer slider bars - (3.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

Worked on the plastic sliding bars for front of horizontal stabilizer. Simple....only had to drill 4 holes....not that simple.....couldn't match drill previously drilled holes as vertical stabilizer ribs in the way. Marked and free hand drilled holes.....didn't work well. Tried again....got closer----on one side at least. Did the other side....screwed it up and tried again...got one hole drilled and then broke drill.
Went to store to get universal joint angle drill, replace broken drill, 1/4" square poplar sticks to straighten soon to be glued false ribs on wing and got some more epoxy glue for rib straighteners....37.00
New parts allowed me to match drill last plastic slider hole in about 5 minutes.....should have had the new parts sooner.

  Oct 10, 2020     Ribs for Vertical stabilizer and rudder - (9.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Picked up a multi purpose oscillating tool, cutter blade for plastic/fiberglass and counter sink drills.

Over last several days, have been working on final fitting of ribs for vertical stabilizer. Had previously finished cutting and drilling mounting holes for tail access panel mounting strips. Prep took much longer than expected. Two batches of 1.0 oz total mix of HYsol used to bond ribs for rudder and vertical stabilizer. I did a separate mix for each. Then needed 0.8 oz total mix Hysol to bond forward tail bulkhead along with gluing/riveting metal mounting strips to multiple ribs in vert. stab. Hysol is a real mess. Fortunately most of the ugly mess will be under the painted fabric.

  Jul 12, 2020     Vertical stabilizer ribs - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Bought some aviation shears at Lowe's....splurged and spent a little extra to get USA shears as have a lot of sheet aluminum to trim

Over two sessions, fitted ribs to vertical stabilizer. Then cut and fitted metal mounting strip to largest rib for vert stab inspection panel. Had read about problems drilling rib after install so fitting and drilled strip before installation.

  Jul 08, 2020     Horiz and vert stab and rudder - (3.0 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

Worked on getting horizontal tail fitted and check nuts locked down on rod ends for horizontal stab supports. Fitted vertical stabilizer ribs. Fitted rod ends and adjusted pivots for proper hanging of rudder.

  Jul 07, 2020     fitting horizontal stab - (2.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

Spent some time rounding up parts and fitting the horizontal stabilizer. Temp placed horizon stabs but did due accurate measurements to level tail and locked down check nuts on rod ends for stabilizer. Also labeled each strut so can be quickly re-installed on final assembly.

  Jul 04, 2020     Install ribs to horizontal - (8.00 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Spent couple days working on fitting and gluing ribs to horizontal stab and elevator. Finished ribs and hung for storage. Haven't done end caps yet. Probably will do horizontal end caps along with vertical stab and rudder.

  Jul 04, 2020     Bearing fitting for elevator - (6.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Spent hours trying to figure out how to do get bearings and bushing to fit into elevator hinge. Fitting was about 0.3mm difference....not very much but enough not to fit at all. Finally figured how to lock bronze bearing onto a bolt with couple of nuts and chuck into drill. Then used file and Boley gauge to reduce to desired diameter. Steel bushings done same way.

  May 31, 2020     more sanding - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

Found I hadn't done anything about the ribs in rudder and elevator. Got them done while doing more YouTube research

  May 30, 2020     More reaming - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

Reamed three more bushings. A little bit of oil on reamer helps a lot.

  May 29, 2020     Reaming - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Watched a YouTube video on modifying reamer to fin to socket and use socket wrench. Now about 15 minutes reaming per large bushing

  May 28, 2020     Sanding ribs - (5.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Gave up on the reaming for now but found a hint on You Tube on modify reamer to fit into universal socket attachment and use drill or socket wrench for reaming leverage. will have to try it. All wood parts need to be epoxy varnish coated so before gets humid, I started sanding rough areas in preparation for varnishing all wood parts. Not hard but took time to sand 40+ rib pieces....some for rudder, vertical stab and wing.

  May 26, 2020     STARTED build. Reaming - (6.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Finally started on actually build/assembly. First item was to ream some bushings on the elevator. Took awhile to figure out how to work the reamers. Spent an hour or so trying to get reamers to work. Some of fittings too close to larger framework to use any kind of "T" handle. Had to use Vise-Grips to turn the reamer. Very slow going. I had purchased a "T" handle at Northern tools but found it will only work for the smallest of all needed reamers. I had a kit/box of die cutters and reamers I've had for 30 years or more. Only able to use the "T" handle from the kit. KitFox reamers are round and "T" handle wouldn't hold. Had to use moto-tool to grind some flat spots on shank and then "T" handle worked like a champ.
Finished reaming on elevator and hung it on wall above work bench. While had the reamer, worked on same size hole reaming in couple dozen spots on fuselage. Then started to tackle the horizontal stabilizer. Have 7 largish bushing to ream that are hinge points very close to frame. Have to use vise-grips. After 45 minutes, I managed to get about 40% through only one bushing. My hand/arm is very tired. Hung up the stab along with the elevator. Will have to work on something else while my arm recovers.