Empennage Fairing

I have a friend who is building a 6. He has the older thick gel coated fairing. Did Van's ever come out with a newer fairing that was easier to work with? Does the F-794B fairing from the RV7 work on the 6?

My 6 kit came with a wet layup epoxy (no gel coat or styrene smell) fairing p/n F694B. It hasn't been installed yet but an initial trial fit looked good. Not sure if it is the same as used on the -7.

Jim Sharkey
RV6 - Wiring

Tommy Cooper walked into a bar.
Ouch! It was an iron bar.
(The Brit's will understand)

If you find that your Van's fairing is not fitting well, I would highly recommed getting one from Fairings Etc. My Van's fairing just was not going on well, but the offering from Fairings Etc went on like a glove.


Regards,

Thanks for the info. He bought his kit many years ago. So it sounds like they went to the epoxy fairing sometime after his kit was shipped.

nippaero said:

Thanks for the info. He bought his kit many years ago. So it sounds like they went to the epoxy fairing sometime after his kit was shipped.

Click to expand...

My fairing was the old gel-coated variety, but I didn't install it until a few years ago. It took a bit of modification, but the fit wasn't bad to begin with. All in all, the final painted product looks rather good. I've bought the newer wheel pants and leg fairings from Van's, and intersection fairings from Fairings-Etc. Just didn't feel it was worth it for the empennage fairing too.

L.Adamson -- RV6A

Easy to fix

I have Van's older gelcoated emp fairing. It did not fit very well, however it was not hard to get it to fit perfectly. I had to cut off the top part of the front were it goes around the vertical stab because it did not alighn. I then drilled and clecoed into place. Once this initial fitting was completed I removed it and covered all the contact points and front of the vertical stab with packing tape. I layed up 3 layers of 8oz fiberglass around the front of the vertical stab and put down one layer along the contact points. After buttering the contact points of the fairing with a thick epoxy and flox mix I refitted the fairing and clecoed in place. Filling, trimming and sanding gave me a perfect fit.

I hoped this helped.

I second the Fairings Etc. recomendation

My original old gel coat was junk. The F.E. unit fit like a glove. Highly recomended, unless you're into tinkering.