During painting I had the Vertical Stabilizer and Rudder installed and removed the Horizontal Stabilizer and the Elevator. The main reason is that the paint scheme lines need to correctly align. The only way to do that is that the parts are assembled.

The Horizontal Stabilizer and Elevator don’t have lines that continue on the Fuselage. However we now have to remove both the Rudder and the Vertical Stabilizer in order to install the Horizontal Stabilizer and Elevator.

Maybe I should have only insert bolts in the Rudder instead I had installed it completly. Anyway the Rudder is off and I have to carefully place it somewhere the paint is not scratched.

Next is the Vertical Stabilizer needs to be removed. The Vertical Stabilizer is currently only attached to the end of the Fuselage.

With all the Empennage parts removed, you have to be careful, because the Engine is installed and that makes the airplane nose heavy.
We place the cradle with the wings aside, so we can pick up the Horizontal Stabilizer and Elevator.

Before installing the Horizontal Stabilizer and Elevator, we need to remove the paper and tape that I used to prevent the internals of the empennage te bo painted.

Now we can install the Horizontal Stabilizer and Elevator onto the Fuselage and bolt it to the attach points.

The Elevator is operated with a long push rod running from the baggage compartment all the way to the tail. There is not much room to insert the bolt and washers.

Now we can torque all the nuts and mark them with torque seal.

Once the Horizontal Stabilizer is attached, we can start installing the Vertical Stabilizer, which is partly attached to the Horizontal Stabilizer. It feels great to torque the nuts for the last time, knowing this is the last time they need to be torqued (besides maintenance).

Next is reinstalling the Rudder. The wiring for the tail light requires a service loop, which is a big loop in the wire to prevent it from wearing out when the Rudder is operated.

Finally we need to attach the Rudder cables to the Rudder and clamp the chains and springs from the Rudder to the Tail Wheel.

Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  4/0  (2021-09-08)

Video

The Empennage Fairing is a tedious part of the build. It’s a more complex form and some builders don’t use the standard fairing in the kit, but construct one themselves.

I don’t have the epoxy/fiberglas skills to go that way, so I’m condemned to sand and drill and then fix stuff again, because I did too much sanding.

The whole Empannage Fairing took me two weeks to get it to the level that I was content with the result.

Good part is that now I do get a feeling for mixing epoxy and flox te fix stuff.

The Empennage is now completely finished, except for the paint job and final assembly once on the airfield.

Time: 8 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-06-10) Engine Pick Up

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 37/0  (2020-06-06)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 37/0  (2020-06-07)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-06-13)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-06-19)

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-06-20)

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2020-06-21)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 22/2  (2020-06-27)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  8/0  (2020-06-28)

Video

With every step it starts to look more like an airplane, however there are still many pieces missing.

We start by positioning the Horizontal Stabilizers in the center of the Fuselage as close as we can by just looking.

We clamp the Horizontal Stabilizers both on the main spar and rear spar to the aft deck.

To position the Horizontal Stabilizers perpendicular to the Fuselage, we measure the distance from the corner of the Firewall to the Horizontal Stabilizer tip.

We did this several times and also measured it with a traditional measuring tape.

Now we can drill the main spar of the Horizontal Stabilizers to the aft deck. First a small drill and after double checking increasing it to the final size.

With the main spar attached, we need to insert shims under the aft spar to set the correct angle between the Horizontal Stabilizers and the Fuselage. With the shims temporarily installed, we can drill the aft spar to the Fuselage.

ALL SET!
Now continue with the Vertical Stabilizer.

Raising the tail-wheel, so the Fuselage is level. This way we can make the Vertical Stabilizer perpendicular to the Fuselage.

The Vertical Stabilizer is attached with a plate to the main spar and to the most aft bulkhead.

Once correctly measured, we can saw the forward attach spar of the Vertical Stabilizer to the correct size.

Before drilling the Hole, we need to be sure the Vertical Stabilizer is not only perpendicular to the Fuselage, but also to the Horizontal Stabilizers. We measured it with the laser and the old fashioned way.

Woo-Hoo, It looks great with the Rudder. Only the missing Rudder Horn looks a little sad.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-16)

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-17)

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-18)

Video

The forward part of the Rudder tips is close during fabrication, in contrast with the Elevator tips, which are open. However I did need to add a layer of epoxy resin and clean it up to make it smooth.

The Aluminum edges, where the tips connect to are also cleaned up with a sandpaper grinder. It enables merging with the resin and produces a smooth result.

Fitting the Rudder tip takes a lot of time. It’s a loop of attaching the tip, check for bumps and unevenness, file and grind and fit again.

Same procedure for the tip of the vertical stabilizer. I used too much epoxy resin for the forward part and had to grind of a lot of material. Note: making the resin hot (by grinding) also makes it weak again.

Next step is to align both tips, so the line of the vertical stabilizer and the rudder should continue nicely.

Once everything aligns, we can start riveting the tips. I use blind rivets, because it’s impossible to use regular rivets and I don’t need access, so I don’t need to be able to detach them.

So now when I created some epoxy resin, I try to handle all tasks that require it. Making resin for every little thing would be too much overhead and a waste of resin (you always make too much).

I use resin on the merge overlap of Aluminum and the glass fiber tips. Also I fill the holes of the blind rivets. Again I shouldn’t use so much resin, because it only results in more grinding.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 18/0 (2020-04-04)

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-04-08)

Video

Before trimming we drill a hole in the corner, because snipping into a corner will result in crackling. By drilling a hole, we prevent stress in the Aluminum. Now we can use the left and right snips to trim the Horizontal Stabilizer.

On both sides we had the “First time right”. The Elevators fitted perfectly in the trimmed Horizontal Stabilizer.

After fastening the hinges and drilling the center hinge holes in the Elevator holes, we could finally attach the Elevators to the Horizontal Stabilizer. Look at the size of this part.

So after 129 hours the Empennage is finished. That is to say, I didn’t do the fairings of the Rudder and the Elevators, but as mentioned before, I’ll pick this up as I do the fairings of the Wings.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 0/0

Video

Once the hinges are inserted I can start fitting the Rudder to the Vertical Stabilizer. It takes several times to attach and detach it again and adjust the hinges. I found that if I set the top and bottom hinge I can adjust the middle to align all three of them.

After hinge alignment I fastened the bolts and here is the attached Rudder to the Vertical Stabilizer in the correct position.

This part can now be shelved for when I start working on the fairings. The nice part is that the counter balance weight arm of the Rudder fits perfectly into the Vertical Stabilizer skin cutout.

The counter balance weight arm of the Elevators however do not fit into the Horizontal Stabilizer skin cutout. Strange, because I don’t see why Van’s cannot prepare that properly (just is with the Vertical Stabilizer). So I inserted the hinges in the Elevators, but did not have enough time to start trimming the skin.

Next time I’ll trim the skin and attach the Elevators to the Horizontal Stabilizer.

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets: 0/0

Video

The afternoon we spent on the start of the rudder. I forgot to capture the “classic” horizontal/vertical stabilizer photo, so I’ll make that picture latter and paste it here.

Time: 2 Hours, Rivets: 147/3

Video

First step is cleaning (specifically de-greasing) all the parts (both ribs and skin). The nice part is I can do this while sitting on my stool.

I tried to make a video of the priming process, but It was mainly my back, so I clipped it short.
Using the paint spray gun is an art and I don’t have that skill yet. But the quality is sufficient for the inside of the plane.

According to some builders, priming is useless and just adds weight. Others claim it is a necessity in some climates. Well I think it looks great.

After priming, I can start again with cleco-ing the spars and riveting the spar doubler and hinge brackets of the rudder to it.

Very productive day, next session I can probably finish the vertical stabilizer and start with the rudder.

With this progress I have to start thinking on ordering the wings. I thought I would do this in 2018, however with the 8 weeks lead-time of Van’s Aircraft, I might run idle.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 115/2

Video

With two persons the assembly and match-drilling is easy. When everything is drilled, we dissembled the vertical stabilizer again and while I was dimpling the skin, my dad did all the deburring and edge cleaning.

The bottom part of the vertical stabilizer’s rear spar needs to be flush. Again we could parallelize the jobs, mhile I was counter sinking the rear spar doubler, my dad was dimpling the rear spar.

We’ve done all the match-drilling and dimpling in just 4 hours. Next time I can prime all the parts and then final assembly of the vertical stabilizer.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 0

Video