Feb 17, 2021     Finished Empanage - (100 hours)       Category: Empennage

I have finished the last piece of the empanage. There actually is still one fairing between the HS and the VS in the plans but that does not come until the finishing kit.

Fiberglass work is extremely fun and rewarding. I used micro bubbles mixed with the West Systems epoxy for most of my filler but also used some of the SuperFil from Aircraft spruce for some of the dents in my elevator tip fairings that I got from Van's. It's extremely light and easy to mix.

Now I am just waiting for the wings and fuselage to arrive. Supposed to be March/April so I am just doing as much research as possible about everything else in the meantime.

  Feb 07, 2021     Fairings - (100 hours)       Category: Empennage

For the fairings I purchased:

Epoxy (west systems)
Pro Filler
Bidirectional cloth
Spreaders
Micro bubbles
Dispensers

I also purchased for fasteners the 2 lug and 1 lug nutplates for the #04 screws. Aircraft spruce did not have these so I found them at Spencer Aircraft. I also got soft rivets for attaching the nutplates to the fairings.

There's quite a bit of work to get the fairings to be perfect. Both of my elevator fairings were dented and I had to repair them, Van's didn't even respond to my request for new ones. In the end it was just a little bit of filler and all is nice and smooth.

When I started it was very cold so I used a fast hardner, but then the temperature rose and I quickly learned to use the slow hardner.

Fur cutting the glass I used the dremmel and for sanding I have found that 60 grit 3M paper followed by 120 and then 400 for finish works extremely well.

Learning a lot about fiberglass and enjoying every second of it.

  Jan 26, 2021     Empanage Attach - (15 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished the aft fuselage skins and attached the pieces. It was great to pull out the rudder from the upstairs closet.

I ended up having to do quite a bit it molding of the elevators leading edge to make sure it didn't rub on the attachment brackets.
One cool tool (see picture below) my mentor made was built out it PVC pipe and really made installing and adjusting those rod bearings a lot easier.
I also purchased a light duty torque wrench (range 10-110 foot-lbs) so the accuracy for the bolts on the attach point was better.
In addition I ordered all new hardware from aircraft spruce so that when I am done with all the adjustments I will will replace the hardware with the final hardware from the new set.

  Jan 07, 2021     Rudder Fairings - (12 hours)       Category: Empennage

Added two rudder cable exit fairings. It took some planning but we decided to rivet them to help the fairings lay down and we used the two front blind rivets that hold the plastic guides and then match drilled the #40 holes on top and bottom to help them lay down.

I had to use the close quarter dimples to dimple the skins since they were already installed. These fairings were purchased from aircraft spruce and are .025" thick aluminum.

  Jan 03, 2021     Systems - (15 hours)       Category: Empennage

I installed the trim tab wires, the ELT antenna, the ELT power source (phone cable), the pitot static system, the rudder cables, the ADSB antenna and the tail strobe wires. I laced the wires after they were layed out and corrected the positions and lengths, and then for added security I used tank sealant on the bushings housing my rudder cables to keep them from moving around as they are used.

  Dec 20, 2020     Aft Fueslage wiring - (12 hours)       Category: Empennage

With the new skin properly dimpled and all the parts primed we riveted the bottoms skin and then attached the longerons, j-channels and remaining bulkheads. Later the wiring per instructions (not finalized, just routed) and then attached the left side skin.

Came out beautiful!

The wiring took us about 2 hours to do properly and I was very grateful to have my mentor Ted with me to guide me through the process.

Lots of work still to do but it's looking like a very nice back end of a plane!

  Dec 02, 2020     AFT Fuselage - (45 hours)       Category: Empennage

Even though I reduced the dimple die of the female part of the 3/32" dimple die the part left smiley faces on the curve of the side skins. I only did one and then stopped to order a new one. Big cost to replace the skin but I would have hated seeing those smiley faces on the skins. I ordered a new reduced die from Aircraft Tool Supply and the new skin arrived yesterday. I will practice on the replaced skin until I am ready to do the new one (with no smiley face).

  Oct 03, 2020     Elevators - (40 hours)       Category: Empennage

This has been a lot of work and very confusing but so far it's turning our beautiful. Just needed to slow down and read carefully and so I haven't been moving as fast as before. But it's shaping out really great.

  Sep 01, 2020     Elevators Day 1 - (8 hours)       Category: Empennage

Began working on the elevators. Pretty basic stuff. Little cutting, little trimming, little fluting. But first time I actually fabricated some foam parts for the TE if the elevators. $79 belt sander from Harbor freight paid for itself today.

  Aug 31, 2020     Finished Horizontal Stabilizer - (60 hours)       Category: Empennage

So I had to replace a few parts including a spar but man, this came out just about perfect! There's a total of about 1000 rivets (seriously, that's accurate) and I can say that every single one of them has been checked. Only had to drill out about a dozen. Getting pretty good at these things now, this is such a fun project!

  Aug 22, 2020     HS main spar assembly - (80 hours)       Category: Empennage

We finished the main assembly. Onto the skins. Riveting the nose ribs to the skins take very tiny hands, of which I do not have. This was the biggest challenge so far. So nice to have this long bucking bar from Cleveland Tool's.

I also had to replace the flange bearing and the brackets for the hinge because I damaged the housing with the bucking bar. Why didn't I squeeze them? I don't know, I did the second time. Thank you Van's for the 24 hours turn around on new pieces for only $80!

  Aug 19, 2020     Finished prep and Primed - (12 hours)       Category: Empennage

We finished all the prep, Dimpled everything and now we are primed. All that's left if the assembly of the HS.

I decided to prep everything before any riveting. So now everything is primed and ready to go. This was a very big task and a ton of hours of prep but everything turned out just beautiful. Can't wait to put this all together.

  Aug 05, 2020     Finished Rudder and Vertical Stabilizer - (30 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finished the Rudder. Trailing edge and leading edge were intense and time consuming but turned out great thanks to my wife Liz and my mentor Ted!

  Jul 30, 2020     Vertical Stabilizer Primed - (40 hours)       Category: Empennage

I completed all the drilling, dimpling and countersinking for the VS. Primed now and ready for rivets in a day or two.

One thing is that I had to skip the first part of trimming the front spar because the doubler is still not here (back-ordered) so these let's will just sit and wait (primed) until it arrives and then I will be able to piece it all together with rivets.

  Jul 26, 2020     Counter sink Rudder TE. Took a lot of practice on the removed piece to counter sink both sides without widening the diameter of the hole. Once the Counter Sink bit was tuned just right, the process was fairly easy. - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

  Jul 22, 2020     Preparing for priming - (8 hours)       Category: Empennage

Built a table for dimpling to hold the skin over C-Frame tool (Plans from Cleveland Tools). Removed the vinyl from inside and along rivet hole lines. Built a table out of chicken wire to hold ribs and stiffners for priming. Purchased the AZKO primer set from Aircraft Spruce for $200.