This morning I woke up early and flew a rental spamcan up to Falls City in Nebraska, taking advantage of the unseasonably cool (for August) morning to get a little daylight between me and the ground. Falls City has always held a certain special fascination for me; the first airplane I owned came with a Falls City Aero Service keychain, and though I never got around to making the short flight, I always wondered just what sort of a place it was. Turns out it's exactly like you'd think: a medium-sized runway, some old tin hangars, and a flock of agplanes. Nice morning though.
Later on, I got out the empennage fairing and spent some time cleaning it up. I used heat and pressure to reshape the areas that didn't fit so great – by clamping down a small section of fiberglass with wood blocks and duct tape, heating up the surrounding area with my heat gun, then letting it cool down, I iteratively got it to fit pretty well. Then I trimmed back the edges, countersunk the holes for tinnerman washers, and installed it with #6 screws to see how it looked.
Not bad really. I may have some additional shaping to do along the top edge, but that's all cosmetic. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There are some gaps of a 32nd or two here and there, but at Oshkosh this year I saw some that looked like they'd been put on with a hammer… quarter inch gaps, even. So, I think mine looks pretty good.
Since I was already sweaty and gross from cutting and sanding fiberglass, I decided to make it a trifecta by mowing the lawn and then going for a nine mile bike ride. Now it is, as they say in the old country, die Miller-Zeit.