After I disassembled the empennage following the form/fit session, I worked on the fairings for the vertical stabilizer and the rudder. The fairings are made of fiberglass, and create the smooth top to both. I had to sand a bit of the material off of each to make them fit, which was done quite easily with a small sanding wheel and a little compressed air. The photos below show the VS fairing clecoed to the top of the VS.
After a wonderful Christmas holiday with my famiy, I managed to squeeze in a full day on the RV project. I pulled out the propane heater and turned on the Bowl games on the television in the garage. I assembled all the completed components together, and began the “fit and function” portion of the instructions. After three bowl games, and about eight hours, I had basically completed the assembly of the kit. See photos below.
The first photo shows the vertical stabilizer, complete with rudder, attached to tailcone. (See new shop stool … Christmas gift from my kids.)
Vert Stab and Rudder
The second photo shows the horizontal stabilator attached to the bulkhead. It includes the Anti-Server Trim pieces, as well as the counter balancle.
Horizontal stabilator
The final photo shows the completed assembly; tailcone and all! All the componets fit like a glove. I’m very happy with the Van’s kit!
Completed Empennage
Wings arrive in February!
After many rivets … Thank goodness for the pneumatic rivet gun … I completed the main tailcone. This completes the assembly of the main components for the empennage and tailcone. The next steps will require me to put them all together to to confirm fit and function.
The weather is getting pretty nippy here in Wisconsin. My garage (hanger) is not heated, so the project days will probably be few and far between. I have placed the order for the next kit (wings), and have been given an estimated ship date of February 15th. I will have to find some days in December and January to complete “fit testing” of empennage componets, then storage in preparation for the wing kit.
Completed tailcone
More photos showing the skins going around the tailcone frames. Skins are first “clecoed” to the frames, then riveted into place. The skins and frames matched up very nicely. Nothing too complicated about this part of the project. Many rivets! This part of the assembly actually involved some plasitic tubing for the static ports, as well as a cable for the stabilator trim.
See photos below:
My kids think it looks like a “time machine.”
Skins have J-shaped stiffener that fits into frame, then overlap the adjacent skins.
Skins on the side.
Final top skin.
After tucking the stabilator into a safe place (above the garage door) I started the tailcone. The tailcone is basically made of frames and skins. I spent a couple evenings preparing the frames; fluting, deburring, priming. Then a couple more evenings preparing the “bulk-head.”
Once the frames were ready, I started working on the tailcone skins. One of the steps is to “break” the edges of the skins, so they don’t curl when riveted to the skins. The afternoon I pulled the skins out was simply gorgeous! The temps were in the 60s, and the sun was high in the sky! I had the garage (hanger) fully opened, and even pushed the work bench out onto the driveway. A couple photos are below:
See the sun shining in on the hangar! It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon to be working on the plane.
Below shows the frames hanging from the bottom skins. The curved shape of the tailcone begins to take shape.
Once the bottom skins were attached to the frames, the assembly could be placed upright. This photo shows frames above bottom skins.
