Category: Empennage

Elevator complete

I finished buttoning up the elevator last night, it looks good! With the exception of an anti-collision light on top of rudder, I think I’m complete with all the empennage tasks! Now, back to the wings.. which means returning to my cold, cold garage :-/...

Swapping an Elevator Skin

After trying to adjust the skins to eliminate the “banana” curve at the end of the right skin, I discovered other builders had also run into this, and it was because the skin was bent incorrectly. Worse, you can’t really fix this either. As it turns out, I had...

Elevator skin alignment

One of my fellow builders (Thanks Pascal!) recommended temporarily attaching the elevator to the HS to make sure the “horns” (end part of the elevator) line up perfectly with the HS skins before nailing the elevator skins down. The correct hardware to attach these two parts is AN4 bolts,...

Skinned the Elevator

I’m continuing with closing out empennage tasks; like the rudder skin issue I described last week, I also had a problem with one of the elevator skins from the original kit I bought. The skin was missing a row of pre-drilled holes for a stiffening channel, and I couldn’t...

Skinned the Rudder

After a long period of working on the fuel tank, I’m at a step where it needs to be attached to the wing. Unfortunately it’s ridiculously cold in NH right now, which makes working in the garage unpleasant. So, I decided to take a break from the wing and...

Closing up VS Skins

I attached the VOR antenna using 20mm length M4 screws with nyloc nuts and then began closing up the skin. Unfortunately the antenna is inaccessible once the skin is riveted on, so for now I think I’m leaving one side open just in case – will just use a...

VOR Antenna Provisions

In addition to the doubler plate, I also need to modify the skin to accommodate the antenna elements.  I notched the skin so that I can slide it up around grommets at the base of each arm.  Pictures are better than words in this case…...

VS Structure Assembled

Vertical stab parts are put together, minus the skin. I’m putting in an optional antenna for VOR/Localizer/Glideslope reception, so I had to make a doubler plate for the top spar where the antenna will be mounted to. To make the plate, I used a sheet of 0.032″ 3003 aluminum...

Vertical Stabilizer Parts Prep

I decided to take a break from working on the wings as I await a few things I need for sealing the fuel tanks. A few weeks ago I got in a shipment of goodies from Jean at TAF, including missing brackets for the VS, so now I can...

Rudder frame done

I finished assembly of the rudder structure this weekend. All went together as expected. Unfortunately I will have to wait to complete the rudder as I am awaiting a replacement skin from TAF (the one that came in my kit was damaged in shipment). It’s on its way from...