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)

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Now I do have a fuselage, so I can attach the Empennage to the Fuselage. Time to finish things, such as the Rudder tips. I can’t help it by applying yet another layer of resin and sanding it of again to make it more smooth.

Next up is the Rudder Stops. I tried the earlier fabricated Rudder Stops according to the drawings, but they don’t fit very well and I didn’t like them.
I hesitated on the ‘internal rudder stops’, but it looks flimsy to me.

So when the time of riveting the Rudder Stops came, I decided to create new Rudder Stops. I used the old Rudder Stops as a template, but made the new ones a bit longer, so I can make it in a better form.

Now I can drill the new Rudder Stops to the Fuselage. They look great and are aerodynamic. However they are placed under the Elevators, so probably no one can see them.

On the Rudder Horn there is a line about half an inch from the top. I wasn’t sure If I had to trim that part of, but apparently I do, because the Horn wouldn’t fit with the Tail Wheel. Maybe the Rudder Horn is also used for the RV-7A or some other model, where you can keep the Horn ‘taller’.

Anyway, I had to trim that part from the Rudder Horn.

I made a card board template to check where the Rudder Control Angle fits the Rudder Horn. At this point I thought I could still cut out the L-form from the Horn and ‘wrap’ it around the Rudder, ‘Fat Change’.

I filed and tried, but in the end I didn’t succeed. If I would yank hared, I’d probably rip the fiberglass.

There is no way I can get it to fit, so after trying for half an hour I decided to trim the L-shaped part out of the Rudder Horn. I could do it on one side and leave the other, but my obsession for symmetry prevented me to do that.

The Rudder Horn fits great, all I need to do is riveting it and than finish it with epoxy resin and sand it.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets:  0/0 (2020-05-21)

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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)

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To actuate the brake cylinder, we need to create Aluminum angles and attach those to the pads. After I cut eight pieces, I found that the second set of pedals includes extra angles. The standard Fuselage kit includes a single set of pedals. If you also want a right side pedal set, you need to order one.

So here are all the parts, eight pads, four cylinder attach plates and sixteen angles.

I use gluing clamps to press the parts together, so there is no space between the parts when drilling.

There are two prefabricated steel rudder-pedal axis, that need to be installed in the forward part of the center section.

With the pedal clecoed to the axis, I can test the motion of the pads.

The Scotch-Brite wheel is perfect to make the Aluminum parts really smooth.

After drilling the holes with a cheap metric drill that is just a tiny bit smaller than the real match drill.

It takes some time to figure out which parts go where. The extra pedal set has bolts of length 4 and 5. This is actually nice, because the left and right side of the pedals require a different length. Strange thing is that the “standard” fuselage kit does NOT have these two lengths.

The left and right pedal have a different alignment with the brake cylinder. I’m not sure what the correct setting is, so I decided I will check the setup of a follow RV-7 builder.

Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 0/0

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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

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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

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In the bottom rib, I could also set all the rivets with the squeezer and only the last one I used a blind rivet.

The result of the bottom rib of the Rudder looks great, I’m really pleased with the end result.

Almost finished front spar, the left an right skin (here top and bottom respectively) need to be “curved” so they overlap.

Time for the most precise part of the Rudder, being the trailing edge. Back Riveting the trailing edge needs to be executed carefully in order not to punch a “hook” in it.

I decided to set the rivets in an alternate pattern, that is on the left skin all even rivets and on the right skin all odd rivets. The instructions call for setting all rivets on one side, but this is asymmetric and I don’t like it. The result her is after setting all the rivets and I like the symmetry of this approach.

I use a broom stick to “bend” the leading edge of the rudder. Just taping it to the skin with duct tape does the trick.

After clecoing the two skins together I can match drill and blind rivet them.

Great Rudder also finished, I guess I should have ordered the Wing kit earlier. However I still need to do the elevators and they are claimed to be the hardest part of the empennage kit.

Time: 3 Hours, Rivets: 112/0

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Now we can “close up” the Rudder and rivet the skins to the spar. We used the structural epoxy to bond the trailing edge and clecoed it together.

We used a cleco in every hole and used the aluminum rod to keep the edge straight. Also I created a custom bucking bar from a small hammer head, to get in to small places, such as the Rudder horn. This worked great and I drilled out two rivets that didn’t set to my satisfaction. Resetting them with the custom “cramped” bucking bar went great.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 98/2

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With the 4″ squeezer yoke I was able to reach all rivets.
During the RV Training Project I found that I really like Back-riveting. The reason is that it is fast, the results are great and it minimizes the change of errors. I delayed the back-riveting of the Rudder stiffeners, in order to prime all Rudder parts at once. Now was the time to back-rivet the stiffeners to the Rudder skin.

I finished with the attachment of the counter balance skin to the Rudder skin. Unfortunately I’m out of LP4-3 blind rivets, so I can’t finish attaching the tip rib. I’ll have to do that later.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets: 268/2

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Again the DRDT-2 is invaluable for this task (although quite expensive). After dimpling there remains this specific task of fitting the counter balance weight in the Rudder. Both the Rudder and the Elevators have a counter balance weight to make the controls smoother. It took a considerable time to find the correct nuts, washers and bolts. I used the shipping list to find the correct bag.

To set the rivets flush with the skin, the skin needs to be dimpled, because it is so thin. The trailing edge strip cannot be dimpled, because it needs te sit flush on both sides. Fortunately this strip is thick enough to countersink. This means drill (with a large drill) until the rivet sits flush.

You can also countersink ribs if they are thick enough, however I like dimpling better and it is stronger. Countersinking does reduce weight, but that is negligible.

Last step before priming is degreasing the parts. I don’t scuff the parts, because during tests I found that the etching primer bonds perfectly on Alclad when grease-free.

During degreasing I discovered that I forget one rib to dimple. Also the end of this rib is very thin, leaving no room for the squeezer. The alternative is manual dimpling with pliers.

Every time when I prime, I get better in using the spray paint gun, but still I’m not entirely satisfied with the result. It’s ok, but not something that makes me proud. I figure that after completion of the plane, I’ll be an expert.

In the afternoon, there was some time left to start assembling the spar of the Rudder. Again a lot of searching through the bags to find the correct nuts and bolts. It would be great if Van’s delivered the bags per component, but with some logic it is doable even for Europeans.

Time: 6 Hours, Rivets: 37/2

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