I drilled out one of the rivets on the horizontal stabilizer and installed an adel clamp to secure the aft end of the antenna. I also wrapped a bit of silicone wrap around the antenna where it passes over the forward spar of the horizontal stabilizer so that it can’t touch.
I drilled a hole in the aft spar of the left elevator so I could use a loop of safety wire to secure the trim tab hinge pin.
The hinge pin tucks under the spar flange to prevent it from lifting.
From the top, you can see how little of the hinge pin is visible.
I left a small amount of the pin visible at the other end of the hinge so that it’s easy to confirm the hinge is fully inserted during pre-flight.
I pulled the plane out of the garage so that I could rearrange it to work on the empennage. First up, I riveted and bolted on the up elevator stop.
I then riveted on the plate that ties the vertical stabilizer’s forward spar to the horizontal stabilizer’s front spar.
After spending most of the day cleaning out the garage, the plane is safely tucked back in.
In this orientation, I can actually completely install the empennage and still get the garage door closed. I can’t walk around the plane that way though, so I’ll likely leave off the rudder and right elevator most of the time though.
I installed the steering link so that I could adjust the length.
Finally, I decided how I was going to mount the ELT antenna, and drilled a hole in the bulkhead and installed the antenna. I still need to figure out how I’m going to secure the other end of the antenna so that it doesn’t bounce around inside the tail.
My Nav/Strobe Lights arrived from Aircraft Spruce today. I used the adaptor plate and gasket and installed them to the landing/taxi light housing. I hooked them up to the plane to verify everything works properly. Holy shit these things are bright. You can’t be looking anywhere near these things when the strobes go off; it is blinding.
Next up, I drilled the rudder bottom fairing and installed a couple of 4-40 nylock nuts.
I anchored the nuts using a couple of screws and some safety wire.
I then mixed up some 5 minute epoxy with flox and covered the nuts to anchor them inside the fairing. After the flox cured, I removed the screws and temporarily installed the tail light to ensure the nuts were secure.
Finally, I took one of the lights and installed a waterproof molex connector so that all of the connections can be made at once when installing the wingtip. I was only able to do this on one of the lights before running out of steam.
I drilled the bottom of the wing for the outside air temperature probe. I installed it in the wing, adjacent to one of the inspection plates (just to the upper left in this picture).
I also cut a small hole in the conduit here so that the OAT probe wires could exit. You can see the 2 conductor molex connector I used here as well. I’m honestly not sure the connector is worth the trouble since it would have to be cut off to remove the probe anyway. It’s probably better to just use a couple of butt splices to crimp the probe wires together with a service loop for future maintenance. With this done, I think I’m done with the wings until they go to the airport.
I needed a little more filler on the front of the rudder.
…as well as the aft side of the vertical stabilizer.
After that cured, I filed and sanded it down to create a uniform 0.150″ gap (the same as the lower gap under the rudder horn).
I also trimmed a little more off the bottom rudder fairing and then removed all of the gel coat around the hole in preparation for bonding a patch. For a non-structural patch like this, removing the gel coat isn’t necessary. I did it more so that the patch would be flush with the gel coat and I wouldn’t have to use as much filler to fair it in.
Finally, I added a patch made of three layers of 8.9oz/yd cloth.
To keep it tight against the fairing, I laid a piece of plastic over the patch and taped it tight. I then taped a piece of scrap aluminum over the patch to ensure it cures totally flat.
I finished up the forward elevator pushrod and installed it for good. Putting the washers between the bellcrank arms and the bearing was a real pain in the ass and required using a washer wrench and looking in a mirror to see what I was doing. I just noticed that I forgot to add torque seal to the jam nut on the rod end bearing.
I also installed the forward end of the aft elevator pushrod for good. This didn’t need washers since it uses a larger bearing.
Installing the forward end of the forward elevator pushrod was also a real pain because the aileron interconnect pushrod really gets in the way. This also needed washers between the forks of the arm, but at least I didn’t have to use a mirror to see what I was doing.
I finished drilling the vertical stabilizer forward spar to the attach bracket and deburred it.
I also epoxied a washer to the forward side of the vertical stabilizer rear spar on the left side since the vertical stabilizer is twisted to the left slightly to counteract the left turning tendency of the airplane. I also countersunk and installed an AN426 washer in the center hole here since I had to drill out the AN470 rivet I installed there.
When I drilled the bottom of the vertical stabilizer to the tailwheel mount bracket and aft bulkhead, it left some tiny metal shavings between the two pieces. Fortunately, I had this chip chaser which did a great job of cleaning these out so that the two pieces lay flat against each other.
This is not an airplane part, but the attach point on my inspection mirror finally broke. I mixed up some epoxy and flox and glued it back together. This is probably far stronger now than it was originally.
I finished drilling the aft deck and longerons to the elevator up stop.
I also finished drilling/reaming the forward vertical stabilizer support bracket to the forward spar of the horizontal stabilizer.
The elevator down stop needed quite a bit of material removed to achieve the recommended amount of deflection.
With the up stop manufactured to plans, I get 31.1º of upward deflection (25º-30º is the specified range). It looks like a number of builders have ended up with slightly more than the 30º limit.
With the adjusted down stop, I can reach 24º deflection from neutral (20º-25º is the specified range). Since I plan on doing quite a bit of acro, I wanted to get near the upper limit.
Afterward, I adjusted all of the elevator pushrods to length and torqued the jam nuts.
I had to lengthen the servo pushrod from 6″ to 6 3/16″ center to center to put it at 90º to the servo arm when the elevators are neutral. I also took the opportunity to prime the servo pushrod and torque everything down. I still have the forward elevator pushrod to do and the final bellcrank connections to install/torque.
I ran across a neat trick on vansairforce.net for adjusting the elevator counterbalance. I installed a 1/4″ nutplate through the forward tooling hole in the counterbalance ribs.
I didn’t get any pictures, but I also riveted on the elevator tips.
My buddy Andre stopped by again tonight to get a little experience with fiberglass. We riveted and glassed the horizontal stabilizer tip fairings on which took all of about 15 minutes.
I mixed up some epoxy and microlight filler and filled the end of the elevator tips. This stuff is incredibly light. A five ounce container of the microlight additive fills a container about the size of a two liter bottle of soda. It’s great for filling and fairing.
