I try to build more and blog less. For no other reason than this is a record of the build, but not necessarily a "how to" guide on building. So I am sorry if you haven't seen as many updates as you like, but I have been working…so there is that.
I was getting ready to make a post back in June saying that I was done with the tail. Sort of like saying I'm done with the wings. The fact is I'm not done with either of those things. I decided, with the wings, to get the tips on…which I did and am quite happy with the results. Of course there is much more to do. But they are in storage for the time being and the tail is on the plane. Here was a rough list of the things that needed "doing" on the tail.
That is not an insignificant list. The items that are struck through are ready to fly today. Final rigging for anything cant happen until the plane is fully assembled in a hangar and first flight is on the horizon. But that intersection fairing has been a bear.
I haven't had to make to many modifications to it. The fit out of the box was pretty good, though I did trim it back a bit to get rid of some excess. The picture above shows the fairing in place with some LED lighting inside to help find the holes where I needed to drill through the fiberglass. Even with no modifications the fiberglass has taken about a week to get right. Today I am going to final drill and countersink it. I'm still not done, though. I have to disassemble the tail and mount nut plates in the empty holes to accept the screws I'm going to use. While the horizontal stabilizer is off I am going to cut away part of the rear spar to accommodate the elevator down deflection. I'll also use this opportunity to get the trim line run and at least tested.
My goal in all this is to be able to say, when done that the tail is actually…really DONE. It still amazes me the amount of work that needs doing for just a seemingly simple outcome.