February 26-27: Empennage fairings

February 26:   Cut and epoxied cap onto VS fairing.  Laid up new pieces for the HS fairings:  I did the "smooth" side on the wrong side of the bend.  (I want the rough side finished with peel-ply on the inside to bond with the reinforcement that comes next step)

February 27:  Cut and fitted the end piece for the right HS fairing.  Epoxy thickened slightly with cabosil and set this up in place to cure.  Reinforced the inside of the VS fairing with a fillet of flox and laid cloth saturated with epoxy over this.  Should be VERY strong when it cures.

February 22-25: Work on fiberglass fairings rudder, VS, HS, elevators

February 22:

Bonded tail light mount to rudder bottom fairing

February 23:   

Sanded and prepped fiberglass tips for HS, elevators, VS, and rudder.  Used 80 grit for high spots, 220, then wet sanded with 400 grit.

February 24: 

Installed rudder top fairing, left elevator fairing, and drilled/clecoed right elevator fairing

February 25:

Completed install of right elevator fairing.  Completed install of rudder bottom fairing including touching up primer.  Laid up fiberglass for VS top fairing and both HS tip fairings.

February 17: Rudder bottom fairing repair, rudder top fairing

Removed peel ply from layup and sanded.  Looks good.  Fitted and drilled the rudder top fairing.  

February 16: Rudder Bottom Fairing

 Sanded and drilled the aft surface of rudder bottom fairing for the light bracket.  When I did the match drilling, voids in the layup caused it to crack and fall apart.  I cleaned this up with dremel tool and filled the area with flox and then laid two layers of glass cloth.   

Also did a repair to the fairing where I over-cut a bit near the rudder horn.

February 15, 2017: Rudder bottom fairing

Cut the rudder bottom fairing along scribe line then fitted it to the rudder following steps in Section 12.  Drilled per the plans on each side, then used the nutplate jig to drill for nutplates on the bottom of the rudder.  

February 12, 2017: aft empennage temporary assembly, rudder attach

First, I made two retainer plates for the horizontal stabilizer counterweights, using scrap aluminum and nutplates - see photos.  This will allow tightening of the counterweight bolts any time they are loose.  Attached the elevators to the HS. Installed rod ends on rudder and fitted to VS.  Checked clearance of the rudder with elevators in trail.  Checked rudder clearance.  Everything looks pretty much perfect.  Very pleased with how the tailcone looks fully (temporarily) assembled.  SECTION 11 COMPLETE 

February 11, 2017: drilled elevator horns, attach HS to tailcone

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Drilled the elevator horns, first through the center flange bearing then after securing both elevators through the bearing with hardware, drilled the lower part of the horns.  Attached horizontal stabilizer to tailcone, drilled 4 aft spar holes to 1/4", secured HS to tailcone with hardware.  Attached VS to tailcone in preparation for attaching rudder.

February 5, 2017: empennage attach, elevators

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Beginning Section 11.  Placed the horizontal stabilizer in cradles and mounted both elevators (first installed rod ends in both elevators).  Spent some time tweaking the position of each to assure good travel of both elevators with no binding.

February 4, 2017: final riveting top skins

With help from Max:  placed moving blankets on shop floor and moved the tail cone to this area.  Then I used built-up moving blankets and floor mat material to "bridge" all the bulheads, finally putting a foam mattress pad in place so I could crawl into the tail and back rivet the remaining rivets in upper skin.  Turned out very good.  Did some prep for Section 11.  SECTION 10 COMPLETE (FINALLY)

February 3, 2017: top center skin begin riveting

Touched up a few rivets in the tail section.  Using access from back side, riveted the aft-most section of the top center skin, using large mushroom set and bucking bar.  Looks very good, comparable cosmetically to backriveting.Shop cleanup.

January 28-February 1 2017 update: aft deck, upper side skins prep, riveting

January 28:  Finished riveting aft deck (rivets here from Vans).  Had to drill out several of these.  

January 30:  Deburred, dimpled, primed left upper side skin.  Fixed a few rivets on the aft fuselage that were a bit proud.  

January 31:  Begin prep of right upper side skin.  Cleco left upper side skin in place.

February 1:  All riveting of Left upper side skin.  Deburred, dimpled, primed right upper side skin.  Clecoed this in place and riveted.  Clecoed the upper center skin into place.