Construction Log for RV-7 N395CL - Empennage Assembly / Fiberglass - 11/23/07 - 1/24/08

Oh Man -its really starting to look like an Airplane!! :)

VS and Rudder Attached

HS and Elevators attached - slight imbalance for now

Another shot...

Cut the HS to allow the proper fit against the elevator counterbalance arm.

Elevators in trail with HS

Attaching / Fitting the HS Tips

Drilled and Cleco'd HS Tips

Drilled and cleco'd elevator tips

Cut HS tips to proper size

Initial fit looks pretty good, so not much fiberglass filler will be needed

Looking for about a 3/32-1/8 in gap here when finished.

Drilled out holes to 1/8, except on the trailing edge whether a MK-319-BS 3/32 rivet will probably fit better.

Drilled and prep'd backing strips from the Elevator and HS tips

Epoxy'd backing strips to HS / Elev tips

Elevator strips need to over hang the edge by about 1/8" due to minimal edge distance on the fiberglass.

Fiberglassed HS tip ends

Not bad for the first try...

Filled both tips with Micro Filler (Glass bubbles and West System Epoxy)

Pop Riveted Elevator Tips

Second coat of Micro on the HS Tips

First coat of micro fairing for the Elevator tips

Riveting the HS tips

First coat of fairing for the HS Tips

Layed 3 oz Bi-Directional cloth on the Elevator tip joint (used Dacron Tape as a mold release)

Layed 3 oz cloth on the HS tip joint

1st coat of micro over the fiberglass cloth

Sanded micro

Installed nutplates on the HS for the Empennage fairing

2nd coat of micro over the fiberglass

1st coat of micro over the fiberglass cloth

And again...

Epoxied backing strips to the VS and Rudder tips

Final sanding and priming of the Elevator tips

Micro'd Elevator ends

Misc Micro Filler

Filler on the trim tab where I had slight dent from the tab bents

Micro'd the Rudder tip for the first time

Fairing on the VS tips

Trim tab sanded and primed

Fiberglassing the VS tip seam

Fiberglassing Rudder tip seam

Rudder head with micro fairing

More fairing on VS

Fairing the end of the elevator to match the distance to the HS tip

Micro on the HS tip to match the contour of the elevator

VS / Rudder fully assembled with tips completed

HS and Elevators full assembled with completed tips

Final HS / Elevator tip

HS / Elevator Tip gap - 3/32"

Rudder / VS Fairing complete

Both pieces at another angle.

Empennage completed at 181 hours total build time!