Empennage: Empennage fairings. Filling in the gaps.

My F-01496 Empennage Fairing had quite a bit of pillowing on the forward edge.  Good place for rain to blast in there.

So I decided to fill in the area.  I laid down packing tape in the skin, scuffed the underside of the fairing, slathered epoxy-flox on it, drenched the screws in Boelube, fastened the fairing back down to the plane then let it sit over night.

After cleaning up the mess, it came out nicely.

Empennage: Empennage fairings.

These steps had to wait two years until I had the space to complete them.  The attachment of the empennage is found here.

My friend completed the horizontal stabilizer fairings.  He chose to recess the aft faces since he had issues with the ones on his RV-9A contacting the elevator counterbalance skin.

If I later find that I prefer it flush, I can change it.  Van's demonstrator, N214VA, has them flush, as shown on an image from when I visited Van's on 7-Aug-14.

The rudder fairing is easily attached and match drilled.

The R-00911B Rudder Fairing Doubler (for the tail strobe) is placed, then match drilled (left).  The cutout for the light is then created (center and right).  You can see that the fairing biases to the left (free trim tab?) so I'll need to file it down on the left side and add some material on the right.

The F-01496 Empennage Fairing is attached (left) and blind drilled (right).

The nutplate holes are created in the inboard edges of the horizontal stabilizer and bottom of the vertical stabilizer.

And now I could step back and see the full tail.  Following admiration, then subsequent vocalization of airplane noises, the tail was removed and will be stored until the aircraft is moved to a hangar.  Because the horizontal stabilizer is wider than the car lanes between my house and the airport, it's foolish to transport the aircraft with the tail attached.

Though the vertical stabilizer fairing is visible and complete, I've not yet attached it.  I am still deciding on where to place my Comant CI-158C-2 VOR/LOC/GS antenna for the GTN 650.  I may perch the antenna atop the vertical stab.  Update 18-May-17:  I opted not to use the Comant "cat whiskers" antenna as it proved difficult to install properly.  I ultimately went with an Archer VOR antenna.

Empennage: Fairings. Rudder top fairing on.

This post might seem out-of-sequence, however I had been putting off finishing the leading edge and working on the fairings in favor of securing experienced help.  

For the fiberglass work, having now seen the process, I'm no longer hesitant to approaching it.  A future post will provide my thoughts on how to work with fiberglass.  In the meantime, you can see how we fit the top fairing prior (left).  And the additional sanding necessary to match the top fairing's taper to that of the rudder proper (right).  I'll need to pour some resin in the space between the aluminum and fairing to close it off.

I'm waiting to complete the bottom fairing until I can mount the rudder and vertical stabilizer.  This will ensure the taper of that fairing matches that of the aircraft's.

Empennage: Fairings. Elevator fairings complete.

The elevator fairings are complete.  I used Loctite on the counterweight nuts.  The only hiccup was riveting in 6 rivets on the left fairing before realizing I neglected to put the counterweights on.  

First the fairings are match drilled after sanding to fit.

The edges should match up well.  They may require some sanding, like this one did.

All done.