Apr 29, 2024     The tail feathers are in place - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

The empennage is installed. Getting close to that first engine start, and getting very excited!

  Dec 03, 2021     Finally done! - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

The washers were hard to keep in place on the fiberglass rudder tip, but masking tape finally did the job. The rudder is now done! So is the rest of the empennage kit. Just in time, too, since the ship with the rest of the Quickbuild kit just docked in Oakland. Only a week or so now until I get it!

  Nov 24, 2021     Finished the elevator! - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Finally! It's not that it took a lot of hours, it's just that there have been a lot of distractions. I finally finished the elevator, got the torque stripe on it, and hung it up in the storage room. I have about an hour left to rivet the top of the rudder in place, and then the empennage kit will be done. Just in time...

  Oct 21, 2021     Got some help with the rudder position light and strobe - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

I got some help from Tom Irion (not pictured) building out the top of the rudder to hold the strobe / position light. Now that this is done, I can rivet it to the top of the rudder and that piece will be done!

  Oct 12, 2021     Putting the nutplates on the trim motor, finishing up the elevator - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Nothing too exciting on this one, I just got some screws to hold nut plates in place for the trim motor and then riveted them on to the trim motor. This is part of a service bulletin that Sling put out. I don't know what the old way to hold the motor in place was, but apparently it wasn't strong enough.

Then I lined up the elevator with the rest of the horizontal stabilizer to make sure everything was where it should be. It was. This is a nice kit to put together!

Also, I had my first tool break. I used it to help peel the plastic off the aluminum, and to hold things in place while I got ready to rivet them, and for many other things. We had such good times together! I'll miss it, but for now I need to get a replacement airplane tool...

  Oct 10, 2021     More help riveting - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

I got some more help putting the elevator together, this time from Matt, Maria, Mike, and Virginia (we needed *someone* without an "M" name). Every time I see someone pick up the rivet gun and pull 5, 10, or 20 rivets without any difficulty, I am reminded of how glad I am to be putting together a plane with pulled rivets rather than the traditional "bash it with an air hammer" rivets! To be fair, Maria grew up with a glider being built in her living room, so this was not an entirely new experience for her.

  Sep 13, 2021     First test fit of the skins - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

This was a fun day, because it is always good to see a shape go from a skeleton of brackets, ribs, and spars to looking like an actual plane part. Now that the skins are cleco'd on to the elevator, I can work on drilling and countersinking the tips.

  Sep 12, 2021     Elevator Trim Tab - (10 hours)       Category: Empennage

I realize it has been a while since I put in any information into the log, and then realized it was because I hadn't done a lot of work recently. Working on the light for the rudder tip, trip to Hawaii, son visiting before going to college, etc. What got me really motivated is that my QB kit is now on the second ship (of two) on its way to get here, so I need to wrap up this empennage.

I worked on the trim tab. It is pretty easy. Just need to get the plastic off, adjust the piano hinge so it has safety wire on both sides, and rivet it together. The instructions said I needed to shorten the rivets but as shown in the side view, the 3.2mm x 8mm rivets fit just fine. I did need to shorten some rivets for the bracket that the electric trim motor attaches too, though.

I hope to work some more on the skin this week and give my son a chance to drive a lot of rivets, then it will go back to Rosie the Riveter doing most of the skins...

  Aug 04, 2021     Future me will thank present me - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

I put some of the rivet backing plates (yeah, they look like aluminum washers to me, too) on the inside of the rudder tip. I am holding them in place with the Clecos and putting a dab of superglue on them to hold them in place. It doesn't need to be strong, just strong enough to hold them until the rivet is in place. I am hoping that I didn't also glue the Cleco into the rivet, but if I did, it should be a brittle enough joint I can just twist it off and reglue the washer, I mean backing plate, if I need to.

This should make sure that the rivets don't pull through the fiberglass, which is why future me will thank present me in a few days.

  Aug 02, 2021     Starting work on the elevator skeleton - (6 hours)       Category: Empennage

I am getting close to the end of the empennage. Once the elevator is done, and once I put the strobe light on the top of the rudder and rivet that together, I will be done. Then it is a 3 month wait for the rest of the Quick Build kit. The only difficulty with the elevator skeleton is just how big it is. It is longer than the table. I put the skins on the left and right side separately, so I don't think that will be a problem, but we'll see. I may need to rig something together for a longer flat surface.

Also, per Evan Brunye's video suggestion, I am NOT attaching the counterweights yet, but I am going to leave those Clecos in place for the hinge. I see why they didn't want the other AN3 bolt tightened, because it will be in the way.

  Jul 30, 2021     Bought some lights Category: Empennage

I just bought the LED strobe/position light for the rudder and the two position/strobe lights for the wingtips. I got a bit of the OshKosh EAA Airventure discount from Spruce. There will be pictures of mounting the rudder light soon.

AVEO POWERBURST DAYLITE GRN-RED-WHITE STROBE KIT - https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/aveopowerburst.php
AVEO - POSISTROBE JP DAYLITE SERIES WHITE REAR POSITION LIGHT - EXPERIMENTAL - https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/posistrobed01led.php

  Jul 11, 2021     (Almost) Finishing the Rudder with some help - (20 hours)       Category: Empennage

I got the skeleton put together pretty easily, but then got into the serious research on how to handle the position strobe. I decided to use the Aveo Ultra Daylight strobes (https://www.aveoengineering.com/lsa-experimental-ul-kits-and-gliders/ultra-daylite/) based on the write ups from several other SlingTSI builders. I have a friend going to EAA's AIrventure, so I'll ask him to see if he can find a deal.

The video from Evan Brunye (https://youtu.be/GJ4mQQ8bThk) was incredibly helpful in how to match drill the tip and using the washers, I mean, Aluminum Rivet Backers, to support the rivets in the fiberglass tip.

The skeleton was pretty uneventful once I figured out how I was going to put everything together including the tip and the lights. I didn't finish the very top where the position LED goes because I don't have it yet, and I don't want to seal it up until the light is installed.

I got some help on the skins from my dad and brother who were out visiting. They were so fast riveting the skin on that I didn't get any pictures other than the Clecos. After that, they were pulling rivets, pulling Clecos, and pulling ahead of my ability to manage the process AND take pictures. Oh well, I get the feeling that, at least on the skins, I am going to have very few of my own rivets. When people come over to help, that seems to be the part they help with. That's OK, I am sure I will have plenty to do over the next year or so!

  Jun 15, 2021     Finished up the vertical stabilizer - (6 hours)       Category: Empennage

I got some help from soon-to-be Sling TSi builder Yeol Grant as well as ongoing support from Rosie (who did not want to be photographed for this riveting spree). On this part, I needed to be really careful of the Rivnuts. In addition to one in the corner of the skin that goes on the spar that needed to be opened up for the M4 bolt (screw?), there are two other M4 rivnuts that needed to be put into the bottom rib. That would have been good to see on the page that was showing the other rivnuts! At least I saw it before riveting the skin on. I also opened up the skin so the head of the rivnut didn't keep it from laying flat.

  Jun 13, 2021     Vertical stabilizer, almost ready for rivets! - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Got the skin lined up, cut a hole through it for the antenna, and used a step drill for the first time. LOVE that thing! Clean holes, no burr, no problem. I ended up putting an angle on the holes because the antenna was going in at an angle, so I used a slightly larger grommet and will let it smush out oval shaped. There is a countersunk hole to attach the skin to the rib right next to the rivet that I can't use because the "puck" from the antenna is in the way. I don't think it will be a problem because of the other rivets and the antenna itself, though.

Got everything attached and cleco'd. I still need to check alignment, then I can let the riveting begin!

  Jun 10, 2021     Build the vertical stabilizer skeleton and set up the VOR - (8 hours)       Category: Empennage

Got the spars and the ribs put together and riveted and spent a lot of time figuring out the VOR antenna. I decided to do a "screw in" antenna so I can work around the skin easier and also so I can take them out to make storage easier. I'm not sure that was the best idea, but it is where I am. I was able to cut a hole in the skin rather than cutting a chunk out, meaning that there is skin all the way around the antenna hole. That's a good thing. The antenna screws in, and then there are set screws to hold it in place. There is no way for me to get at the set screws, so I will probably end up with a little Locktite holding it in. It is pretty tight in the gromet, too, so I don't think there will be a problem.

Other than the antenna, I just needed to run the two wires (one for the strobe/position light, one for the VOR). Just a note for later, the VOR antenna has an integrated balun, so I won't need a separate one.

The directions called out one set of rivets as part 999, which is actually a 3.2mm countersunk rivet in other parts of the build manual, and these are 4mm holes. I decided that they probably mean the same 4mm x 10mm rivets as the rest of the skeleton uses, and it worked out OK.

  Jun 03, 2021     Started building the Vertical Stabilizer and Dodged some Gotchas - (4 hours)       Category: Empennage

I put together the long spar for the vertical stabilizer and was fortunate enough to have read ahead to avoid some problems. The first one was that the M4 rivnuts did not fit in their holes, so those needed to be drilled out. No problem there. There are two layers of rivnuts, though, and if there are no clearance holes, the multiple layers of the spar don't lay flat. That was one of the tips I saw - make the clearance holes for the edges of the rivnuts. There is a picture showing the gap, then another one showing the layup without the gap because of the clearance holes.I also included some pictures of the clearance holes.

Oh, but wait! The goal is to put M4 bolts (screws?) into the rivnuts eventually, which means that there needs to be clearance holes for the bolts to go through. Luckily, that was also a warning I read, because if I didn't predrill clearance for the M4, I couldn't do it after it was riveted together. The rivnut in the back would be in the way. There is a picture showing the other part of the spar with clearance holes for two rivnuts (in red) and the seven rivnuts (in green) on the innermost piece.

There was also a "be careful" in that the brack that goes on the spar needs only 4, not 8, rivets. That would have been easy to miss.

And, for the sake of completeness, here's what the "skeleton" looks like. Next step is figuring out how to put in the wiring for the strobe and the VOR antenna, and actually getting that done.

  Jun 01, 2021     Just bought a VOR antenna - (0.5 hour) Category: Empennage

I didn't realize that I needed to buy my own VOR antenna for the build. I will want to be able to use VORs in case the GPS network goes down some day, plus I enjoy using them currently in my Piper Cherokee when I don't want to just follow the magenta line. I bought a RAMI AV-520 so I can install the base station, then go back and install the antenna leads a little more easily. That was the plan, anyway. Now that I've received it, I see that there are set screws to hold the antennae in place. I just need to make sure that I can access them after the skin is in place. Either that, or Locktite will be my friend!

  May 29, 2021     Finished the horisontal stabalizer!! - (10 hours)       Category: Empennage

Finally finished the horizontal stabilizer (except for one 4mm countersunk rivet I need to fill in a hole I accidentally made too big). I got the correct trim motor wire installed, I marked what kind of rivets go in which hole, lined up the skins, made sure that everything was aligned, and got ready to rivet. Then, just as I was getting started, Rosie decided she wanted to do it. She ended up riveting about 90% of the skin. She is a master of the rivet gun!

  May 24, 2021     Started work on the Vertical Stabalizer - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Got started on the vertical stabilizer. I think it will go much faster since I've already done work on the horizontal (horisontal?) stabilizer, but since I haven't finished that one yet, I don't know what problems I'll run into yet. What could possibly go wrong? :-)

  May 22, 2021     Tried to close up the horizontal stabilizer - (4 hours) Category: Empennage

I deburred all the holes, lined everything up, and went to install the wire for the trim servo. No wire. It was called out on the exploded view, but was not on the parts list. I sent an E-Mail to the factory and, while I'm waiting, I asked the Facebook group. They said the wire should be there. Guess I move on to the vertical stabilizer while I wait for wire…

Update I received from the factory on May 25:
We have changed the part numbers recently. We used a 6 core wire in the past with wire unconnected. We now supply a 5 core wire for the trim servo EC-WIR-522-X-X-0, 22AWG 5-Core Screen Wire. It was also referred to as HS-WIR or EL-WIR but this was only for CAD and construction manual purposes.

If you have a 6 core or a 5 core wire in the kit then you have the correct wiring for the trim servo.

  May 10, 2021     Getting closer on the horizontal stabilizer - (5 hours)       Category: Empennage

Rivet gun - turns out that I needed to disassemble the head, clean all the oil off the jaws, and re-lubricate the mechanism (but NOT the inside of the jaws!) and it works fine. Excellent customer support from Stanley tools on this thing.

With the rivet gun working, it was relatively quick work to assemble the "skeleton" for the horizontal stabilizer. I also did a test fit of the skin. I tried doing one side (top of the stabilizer, from the leading edge to the trailing edge) then the bottom. Next, I tried doing it from the leading edge down both sides evenly. Doing it from the leading edge seems to work best. I may try working from the trailing edge of one side up and over the leading edge down to the trailing edge of the other side next. One thing is certain, though. It is time for me to figure out if and how I want to put corrosion proofing on the inside, line it all up, and rivet it all in place. Then I can move on to the rudder, vertical stabilizer, and elevator.

  May 01, 2021     Starting to assemble the HS frame - (6 hours)       Category: Empennage

We are finally putting rivets to spars and ribs! I got Isabel in the act and she loved the rivet gun. I had to slow her down a little so she didn't end up putting a bunch of rivets in we didn't need (or want!) yet. We got both spars assembled and all the ribs Cleco'd in.

Ran into a problem with the rivet gun, though. While it works great for the 4mm rivets, it seems to be slipping off the mandrel for the 3.2mm rivets. I have an e-maiul into Stanley about their Proset XT2 to see if I need to replace the jaws, lubricate them better, or something else. The 3.2mm rivets are easier to pull by hand than the 4mm ones are, but my goal is to pull NONE of them by hand!

  Apr 30, 2021     Got some back-ordered parts - (1 hour) Category: Empennage

I got a large box from The Airplane Factory that had "back ordered parts." Allison and I opened it up, did an inventory check, and found that about 90% of the back-ordered parts were in there, but not the weights or bracket that were missing from the initial shipment. I don't need those until close to the very end of the empennage, so it shouldn't slow me down.

  Apr 27, 2021     Dimpling the Horizontal (Horisontal?) Stabilizer (Stabiliser?) skins - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

This went pretty easily once I got Allison's help holding the material. There were 240 holes that got dimpled and all went well. No misses. I learned my lesson with the rib!

Peeling the plastic off the aluminum was a challenge, but I found that pulling it slowly was actually much faster than trying to pull it quickly. I am sure there is a life lesson in there....somewhere.

  Apr 25, 2021     Doing the dimples - ribs and mistakes - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

I have started the dimpling. Sasha and Peter (slingalongblog.sashapeter.com) were INCREDIBLY generous and lent me their DRDT-2 machine. This is both good news and bad news. The good news is that it is SO easy to do the dimpling. The bad news is that it is so easy to do the dimpling that if I am not lined up correctly, the machine will both dimple AND punch a hole. Lesson learned. I sent an e-mail to Sling to ask if this is repairable or if it needs to be replaced. They wrote back to say that it is just holding the skin to the rib, so it isn't as critical as some other ones. I can just re-dimple the rib (and eventually the skin) for a 4mm countersunk rivet and drill the hole bigger for it. Now I need to find some 4mm countersunk rivets... I got all of the ribs dimpled, though!

  Apr 17, 2021     First completed part - Elevator Counterweight Bracket - (4 hours)       Category: Empennage

Since I don't have the dimple dies yet, I looked for the first part I could do without dimpling. The counterweight bracket fit the bill perfectly. Small, 54 rivets, completely self-contained, so I went for it. It took me a few times doing the dry fit-up to be happy with it, and then I cleaned it all with alcohol and put it together. I noticed that the right-angle brackets block access to one of the rivets (well, to the rivet gun), and luckily the brackets were only Cleco'd in when I was trying to get that rivet.

I couldn't figure out why my Proset XT2 rivet gun wasn't working. I figured there wasn't enough air pressure (the compressor kept turning on to try to keep up) or that the gun itself was broken (half price on eBay, the serial number on the top mysteriously scraped off but the one on the bottom was there). I noticed there was only the one nosepiece when I got the gun (did I mention half price on eBay?) but didn't think much of it as I pulled the 50 3.2mm rivets by hand, but when I had to pull the 4mm stainless steel one by hand, I decided to try again. Turns out that even with the sad excuse for a compressor, the gun pulled the 4mm rivets just fine. So, I went online and ordered the nosepiece for the 3.2mm and the 4.8mm rivets, because I know I will need those soon.

Also, Allison and Rosie (the riveter) got into the act, each pulling one of the 4mm rivets.

When all was said and done, there were a lot of used mandrels, only one rivet that needed to be drilled out because I put it in the screw hole, and everything is good!

  Apr 10, 2021     First test fit - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

I'm sure the entries will get a lot less detailed in the future, but for now, every step forward is an important one! So, this evening I did the first fit up of the horizontal stabilizer "skeleton." It went well, but I could see I need many more of the 5/32" black Clecos. After spending another $70, 100 of them should be here Thursday. Also, the dimple dies were back-ordered, so I need to spend some time figuring out what to do with that. Next steps will be peeling all of the plastic off of the spars and ribs, invite the EAA TA over to see what is going on, and figure out what to do, if anything, about corrosion protection.

  Apr 10, 2021     It's finally here! - (2 hours)       Category: Empennage

Yay, my empennage kit finally got here! Spent a couple of hours taking an inventory of parts and was surprised to see that there were some parts backordered, there were some I *could* have got (like a VOR antenna), there was one that wasn't labelled, and there was one that was just missing. I'll call TAF on Monday and figure out how to get the missing parts and how to get the back-ordered parts. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of my bringing the kit home from Sasha and Peter's hangar, since they were kind enough to get the delivery for me. The plan was to ship their stuff and my stuff in one shipment, saving us both money. Unfortunately, the logistics person at TAF quit just before everything from this container was shipped out, so everything got messed up. In the end, though, I got my stuff and I am hoping Sasha and Peter get theirs.

  Jan 12, 2021     Splicing wire to the trim motor, and an important tip on torque wrenches! - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

I used some heat gun splices for the wire from the trim motor to the wire that will go into the plane. They're nice - you slide the splice onto one of the wires, wrap the two wires together, slide the splice back up so the solder band is over the wires, then hit it with a heat gun. The tubing shrinks to hold everything tight, the solder melts to hold the wires together, and the colored bands are actually glue which grabs onto the wire and makes a waterproof seal. No worrying about crimps!

In the category of temporary defeats turned into learning moments, I found that if you use an AN3 bolt that only needs 2 ft-lbs of torque and accidentally set the torque wrench to 7 ft-lbs, it will snap the bolt without even breaking a sweat! Very important to check the wrench twice. Luckily, there is an aircraft supply store about 15 minutes away at Concord Airport. I am keeping the broken bolt as a reminder to double check!

  Sep 22, 2020     Decided to give it a shot - bought an empennage Category: Empennage

After having flown in N135WT, I decided to give it a try. I don't know how much support I'll have (or need), or if this is something I can do, so I decided to start small and just get the empennage kit. Sent in the deposit, now all I need to do is wait for it to come in. And wait. And wait.

Overall kit is $4,460 so I paid half.