Matt's RV-7 Project » Tip fairings

Canopy work aborted

Matt — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:11:51 +0000

After putting some protective tape over the end of the slider frame latch tube, I flipped the canopy over and laid the frame inside.

The goal is to get the frame aligned on the previously marked centerline, in the fore-aft location that results in the best fit along the center spine tube. Then you mark the location of the latch tube and drill a 5/8" hole. I got as far as marking the hole location, but the temperature didn't get up nearly as high as I thought it would, so I had to give up on drilling/trimming the canopy for another day. Bah.

In an effort to find something else to do, I dug up the subpanel pieces, dimpled the top rib flanges, and clecoed the whole works into the fuselage.

Then I deburred the forward top skin, which I hadn't yet bothered to do. I dimpled where I could reach along the edges, leaving the holes along the firewall undimpled for now – the cowling attach hinges still need to be match-drilled there, much further down the road. Then I packed up the skin and drove over to John's to use my DRDT to dimple the rest of the skin. Not a very efficient use of building time, but it felt like a good day to spend a couple hours driving.

Somewhere in there I did some more filler work on the left horizontal stabilizer tip fairing. I've had this clamp for at least ten years and I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever used it.

Also, I stopped at Lowe's and tried to buy a new belt sander, but they were out. Bah.

Misc stuff

Matt — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 01:33:54 +0000

I spent the whole day in the garage but didn't take many pictures. I guess I didn't actually get all that much accomplished – mostly I puttered and cleaned up the garage. It was great to be outside in the nice weather though.

One of the pre-tail-mounting chores I've been meaning to do is drilling the holes for the strobe and nav light wires that will go through the vertical stabilizer spar into the rudder. I picked the same location as Dan for much the same reasons – with the taildragger there aren't many other good choices for where to run these wires. I drilled a 5/16" hole for the strobe cable and a 3/16" hole for the nav light wires. Both holes are a little oversized so I can use a few layers of shrink tubing and some RTV to protect the wires from chafing.

Another day, another round of filling and sanding empennage fairings. I'm just doing a little bit every work session, fitting the glass work in between other tasks that are more fun.

I rearranged the garage a bit, and made a little table out of a sheet of plywood and a couple sawhorses. This is where the canopy is going to sit while I work on it. Yes, I've decided to work on the canopy some more before I put the airplane on the gear and mount the engine. Matthew convinced me that it'll be easier to get to it while it's down low and not high up on the wheels. Plus it seems to be warm enough these days to start thinking about working with plexiglass again.

I got out the canopy frame to make sure it still fits – yep:

Installed empennage gap fairings and horizontal stabilizer

Matt — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 03:33:33 +0000

The plans call for you to install nutplates along the F-709 bulkhead where the fiberglass empennage fairing and the forward end of the aluminum empennage gap fairings will attach, and then drill and tap holes in the longeron underneath the stabilizer to attach the gap fairings along the rest of their length. I decided to install nutplates everywhere instead of tapping the longeron – a tapped hole has no ability retain a screw and I remembered how one or two of these screws were always backing out on my old airplane.

Installing nutplates here took only a few extra minutes and was no big deal to accomplish. I did check with Van's before I did this, since I was wondering if the extra rivet holes would do anything structurally back there. Here's what they said:

Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:38:14 -0800
From: Van's
To: Matt
Subject: Re: Nutplates for empennage fairing

It's OK, but why would you want the extra expense and work?

Vans

I think they must have an automated process that sends that reply anytime they receive an email that starts with "Is it okay if I…"

After double checking my todo list to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything, I vacuumed out the tailcone one last time and bolted the horizontal stabilizer on for good.

Here is one of the empennage gap fairings installed. The topmost hole is left open because it's shared with the fiberglass empennage fairing. I used the hand seamer to get the forward edges of these fairings to lay down nicely on the fuselage skin. I'm not sure what to do about the forward end of the rubber channel – maybe I'll trim it at an angle to try and help keep the wind from peeling it up.

Before turning in I reattached one of the horizontal stabilizer tips and put on another coat of filler to help smooth out the forward edge where the fiberglass and alunimum come together.

Empennage fairings part VII

Matt — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:40:48 +0000

Still not too much time to work on the project lately. I did have a chance to reinforce the balsa ribs on the horizontal stabilizer tip fairings with a mixture of epoxy and flox, and to fit and install the 4-40 nutplates that will hold the fairings on.

I mixed up the usual batch of micro filler and smoothed out the transition between the tip fairings and the stabilizer, with an extra blob at the nose to allow a perfect fit after it's all sanded down later. I also put a big glob of filler on the outboard corners – a lot of this will get sanded off, but what remains will be the the first step of building up the tip fairings to match the contour of the elevator tips.

Empennage fairings part VI

Matt — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:00:19 +0000

I was either in class or studying for half the weekend, but I got a little bit done on the empennage fairings. I ground down the elevator tip fairings until I got the shape pretty much how I wanted it – they turned out not bad at all. I sanded them down to 320 grit once I got the shape right.

This is why I hate working with fiberglass – dust everywhere.

I removed the horizontal stabilizer from the airplane and laid it out on the bench to receive its fairings.

Trimmed the stabilizer tip fairings to fit and drilled and clecoed them in place:

The plans call for a minimum gap of 1/8" between the elevator counterweight and the fairing – mine is more like 3/16" in the neutral position, or slightly less when the elevator moves through its range of travel. Good enough. I did open up the other side a bit so the gap would be even on both sides of the stabilizer.

You can also see where I'll need to build up the outboard part of the stabilizer fairing to match the contour of the elevator.

I made some ribs for the stabilizer tips out of 3/16" balsa sheet. This reminded me a lot of how I used to build model airplanes as a kid. Actually balsa is really nice to work with. Maybe I'll take up model building again someday… nah.

I epoxied the ribs into the fairings and left them to dry overnight.

Since it was fairly nice outside, I decided to mask off the elevator tips and shoot a coat of primer. This will help me find the low spots and imperfections.

Not too bad. I got the look I was going for, and they turned out pretty nice. I will probably come back and do some more filling and sanding in order to work out a few minor imperfections, but overall I'm pleased.

Before I turned in, I managed to get the tail fairing nutplates riveted to the stabilizer.

All this work on fiberglass fairings, and this guy made his out of aluminum. I can't even comprehend the amount of skill that takes.

Empennage fairings part V

Matt — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 02:00:34 +0000

I decided on a new plan of attack for the elevator caps – I'll attach them permanently, but I'll make them look like they can come off. Then at least all the fairings on the tail of the airplane will have a consistent look, which is important if you're obsessive like me. First I rounded off the forward edges of the lead counterweight with a file, then I match drilled the untouched elevator cap and installed nutplates and reinforcement strips:

The two nutplates at the aft end are very close together. If I hadn't been forced to use the prepunched holes I would have staggered these a bit to avoid interference, as I did with the aftmost rivets holding the aluminum strips to the fairing. As it is I had to cut down some screws to keep one screw from trying to push the other one out.

Here's another thing that I'll do differently on my next airplane – when you dimple the attachment holes for the elevator caps, the rib flange gets between the dimple die and the skin and all your dimples end up with this little crease on the inboard side. You won't be able to see this once it's all painted, but if I'd known this I would have at least match drilled the fairings and dimpled these holes before riveting the elevators together.

Here's a test fit to make sure all the nutplates and holes are lined up:

I riveted a #10 nutplate to the outboard side of the counterbalance arm, using the 3/16" tooling hole that was already there. The reason for putting a nutplate here is that I can use it to bolt on a wide-area washer or two if it turns out that my elevator needs a little bit more weight up front… call it balancing insurance. Also, this photo is proof that I checked the torque on the outboard counterweight bolt on the right elevator – it will be inaccessable once the fairing is on for good.

Okay, I wasn't able to take pictures of how I performed the next series of steps, but I'll describe it and show the result. I mixed up a slurry of epoxy and flox, and applied a thick layer between the lead counterweight and the inside face of the tip fairing. This should glue the fairing to the lead and also fill in the gaps between them. Then I put in all the screws, and covered the edge of the skin with a layer of electrical tape. Next I mixed up a big batch of epoxy and micro, and used it to fill the gap between the skin and fairing on both sides of the elevator. I also applied a generous helping of filler to cover over the forward face of the counterweight, and the corners with the fairing and the counterweight come together. Most of it will get sanded off later, but this should hopefully provide the basis for a nice looking fairing closeout.

After all of the above was finished, I figured the right elevator would be out of commission for the rest of the day before the goo was cured, so I started thinking about the left elevator. It turns out that a replacement elevator cap is thirty bucks from Van's, so instead of throwing away the one I'd previously tried to put glass on, I spend some time sanding off my mistakes and restoring it to nearly-new condition.

Then I performed the same series of steps – match drilling, installing nutplates, and so forth. This photo is proof that I installed the spare nutplate and checked the torque on the inaccessable bolt on the left elevator

After all that (a couple hours of work) the left elevator cap got the same filler treatment:

Once both elevators are dry I'll start sanding them down. For now, though, I'm sick of composites.

Empennage fairings part IV

Matt — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 03:19:14 +0000

One more application of filler to the rudder cap – hopefully the last one, save for the inevitable pinhole filling. I'm really happy with the way the rudder cap has turned out.

I'm much less happy with the elevator tip I did the other day. I will probably throw this away and start over with a new one from Van's. The stupid counterweight is totally in the way, and it's looking less likely with every try that I'll be able to have removable tips on the elevators. Darn.

Here's the other, mostly untouched tip fairing, just to illustrate the situation.

Once again, I'm really glad the whole airplane isn't made of this crap.

Empennage fairings part III

Matt — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 03:07:00 +0000

Okay, so the first try at closing up the elevator tip fairing didn't turn out so well. I forgot to take a picture, but basically the fiberglass had nothing to adhere to (the lead was coated with tape to prevent sticking) so it was very wavy and uneven. Also, since I only used three plies of 1 oz cloth it was very flimsy.

One of the nice things about fiberglass is that if you screw up you can usually grind off your mistake and try again. This time I'm going to try using a piece of aluminum to provide the structural strength, and the fiberglass will just be there to hold it all together. I made a forward bulkhead out of some scrap alclad (0.040" I think), scuffed it up so the epoxy would stick, and temporarily attached it to the counterweight with double-sided tape.

Then I laid up three layers of 5 oz cloth, with a single layer of 1 oz cloth over the top to help fill in the weave. We'll see how this turns out.

I must say, the new style of elevator counterweight is a real pain. The old arrangement seems like it would allow you to spend a lot less time messing around with fiberglass to get the tip fairing to come out just right. But what do I know…

Back to the rudder, I mixed up another batch of micro and applied it here and there. This photo is kind of hard to interpret, but what you're looking at is a glob of micro applied to the front face of the rudder cap, with a piece of scrap alclad (covered with duct tape to make it non-stick) taped in place to make it cure with a nice smooth, even surface.

My cat wanted to help write this entry:

More empennage fairings

Matt — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 01:30:41 +0000

Today was an all-fiberglass day. Sorry, no action shots – hard to hold a camera with sticky fingers.

I sanded most of last night's primer off of the top rudder fairing, then put another glob of filler on the front where it still needs to be built up. My favorite tool for this kind of sanding is a 3" red scotchbrite disc in a die grinder turned down to low pressure. I also use a 60 grit sanding block where necessary, but power tools make the job go faster.

While the rudder fairing was curing, I got out one of the elevator tip fairings and started playing with it. The lead counterweight at the front is going to throw some sand in the gears of my plan to make removable empennage tips. It is tempting to permanently attach the elevator tips and just glass over the counterweights, but I'm still going to try to make them removable because I love a challenge. (Mary would probably say that I'm just plain stubborn)

I laid up three layers of lightweight cloth, sufficient to cover over the open end of the fairing where the counterweight lives. It's not much to look at right now because the peel ply is blocking the view. Underneath is a layer of electrical tape to prevent the fiberglass from sticking to the lead. With any luck this will form the starting point for a closed-end fairing that will cover the counterweight but will still be removable – we'll see tomorrow.

Hours later, the second coat of filler on the rudder was dry, so I proceeded to sand away at it. The shape is almost there now – just needs one or two more layers.

After shooting a coat of primer to help me check the finish, I put more filler on a few spots to fix some of the more egregious pinholes. My goal is just to get the basic contour correct – I'll leave the detailed surface finish work to the painter.

In the middle of all this, I bought and put together this particle board file cabinet for Mary. I found myself thinking how awesome it would be if airplanes were put together with quarter-turn fasteners. I'd already be flying!

Working on top rudder fairing

Matt — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 02:34:37 +0000

I decided that I should work on the empennage tips next, because it will be a lot easier to mess with them while I have the tail removed from the fuselage. Once the engine goes on I'll have to keep the tail attached to prevent the fuselage from tipping over on its face, so I'm trying to get as much done on the empennage while I have the opportunity.

For no particular reason I decided to start with the top rudder fairing. I trimmed the flanges enough to get the part to fit onto the rudder, and match drilled #30 holes through the skin into the fiberglass.

It isn't a terrible fit, although it is quite a bit shorter than it needs to be. I'll have to build up the forward face with filler.

The plans have you attach the fairing to the rudder skin with flush pop rivets. A lot of people use filler to make their fairings match the contour of the empennage surface, then use a layer of fiberglass to hide the joint between the aluminum skin and the composite fairing. Me, I really like the look of a well-fitted fairing with a perfect, visible seam between the two parts, so I decided to steal Randy Pflanzer's method. He made his fairings removable by using 4-40 screws and nutplates instead of blind rivets, which lets you take the fairing off to clean up the join line.

I riveted nutplates to the fairing, using a thin strip of alclad as a backing strip to keep the rivets from pulling through the fiberglass. On the first side I did (facing down in this photo) I used the same rivets to attach the nutplates to both the aluminum and the fiberglass. That turned out to be a pain to do properly, so on the other side I first riveted the nutplates to the aluminum strip, then riveted the strip to the fairing with one rivet between each pair of screw holes. That way turned out a lot better, since I could do the tricky riveting of those tiny little nutplates out in the open where I had better access.

By the way, the gaps in the alclad strips in the photo above are there because I made the them out of scrap and I didn't have anything long enough to span the full length of the fairing.

Here's an initial view of how the fairing looks when screwed in place. A #4 flush screw fits in the same dimple as a 1/8" rivet, and I really like the look of the visible fasteners. There is about a 1/16" gap along the join line, which will need filling.

I protected the rudder skin with a layer of electrical tape (very thin but rugged enough to resist sanding) and some duct tape too for good measure. Then I used some 60 grit to knock down the high spots in the fairing. The very tail end was the worst spot, as the fairing was quite a bit thicker than the rest of the rudder back there.

Then I mixed up a batch of epoxy and microballoons that was about the consistency of peanut butter, and slathered it all along the join line, making a special effort to try and force it down into the gap. I also tried to build up a big glob of filler on the forward face where the fairing is too short, but I expect I'll have to revisit it a couple more times in order to get enough material where it needs to be.

I'll let the whole mess dry overnight, then sand off all the excess and see where it leaves me.

Oh yeah, while I was doing stuff in the airplane workshop I installed the eye bolts through the firewall, to which the rudder pedal return springs will attach.