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Monday, May 17, 2021

More empennage, including horizontal stabilizer tips:

 

One more coat of epoxy primer on the tips. Even after this I found a few pin holes!

Getting ready to trace the foam rib to close out the horizontal stabilizer tip:

Rib after cutting and sanding a little:

Ready to fiberglass:



I decided to add some aluminum strips to the HS tips due to the edge distance on the screw holes:

Empennage fairing combined with the metal access panel looks great:



Thursday, May 6, 2021

Empennage work:

 

Elevators are balanced and "permanently" installed. I balanced both elevators separately then connected them and the push pull tube and torqued all bolts.

The elevator trim servo can be unplugged here to remove the elevators when the plane is painted.

I copied the elevator trim servo wiring idea from a Vans Airforce forum post. The wire remains clear through the full travel of the elevator:

Right elevator only needed a little extra weight to balance. After painting I can easily add more.

Much more weight required for the left elevator to compensate for the trim servo.

Making the trim servo plug. There is also another plug attached to the trim servo so it can be removed for maintenance without removing the elevator.

Elevator tips after some epoxy primer:

Horizontal stabilizer drilled for tips:

I cleaned up and painted the elevator horns:

I used soft rivets and attached the plate nuts directly to the fiberglass elevator tips:

A lot of filling and sanding: