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Suggestions? Wrapping up the tailcone....

txaviator

Well Known Member
I am just about finished with the tailcone / empennage. The plans have you attach the empennage to the tailcone, of course after you rivet on the final top skin to the fuselage. But I am hesitant to put the top skin on, and hesitant to mount the entire empennage. Why? Somewhere within the -12 forums, I know I read some suggestions from a prior builder that said he would suggest NOT putting the final skin on, and not yet mounting the empennage until later. For the life of me, I cannot find this information again, even though I thought I had it bookmarked in my favorites.

So for the fellas that have already built this section of the kit, what do you suggest? Storage of the completed unit is not an issue....

Thanks in advance for your advice!
 
Hey Gary - -

put "attaching tailcone" in the search box under 'post'. You will see a bunch of threads on it.

John Bender
 
Thanks, John. I've seen most of those posts and did extensive searching before posting, but I'm still not finding the one where the gentleman had some good reason to not fully install the top skin? I'm thinking it was on someone's build site, versus the forums, since I can't locate it.

I'm thinking I'll just proceed along as the plans suggest, and if something is more difficult later, at least I'll know it's still possible and I've not skipped any steps in the sequence.
 
Do NOT install those top skins until just about LAST. Same for the rear window! Do more searching in the forum. Read some of the blogs. Have the control linkages and AP servos fully installed before you attach the tail.
 
I'm thinking I will just cleco the top skin on for now, and store the stabilator, vertical and rudder. The tailcone fiberglass/fairing didn't ship with my kit (#610) while I think I saw it shipped with earlier kits. I see no reason to rig all the empennage now, then have to remove it again once I get the fairing.

Speaking of, does this fairing now ship with the finishing kit, or ?

Thanks for the previous comments.
 
I am just about finished with the tailcone / empennage. The plans have you attach the empennage to the tailcone, of course after you rivet on the final top skin to the fuselage. But I am hesitant to put the top skin on, and hesitant to mount the entire empennage. Why? Somewhere within the -12 forums, I know I read some suggestions from a prior builder that said he would suggest NOT putting the final skin on, and not yet mounting the empennage until later. For the life of me, I cannot find this information again, even though I thought I had it bookmarked in my favorites.

So for the fellas that have already built this section of the kit, what do you suggest? Storage of the completed unit is not an issue....

Thanks in advance for your advice!

I don't think I've ever seen a post saying it was good to not put the top skin on the EMPENNAGE. There's nothing in there that you would need to get at later. I think you might have confused this with posts saying that you shouldn't put the turtle deck skins on that frame the rear window until the very last moment. This refers to the fuselage kit not the empennage. Also you might want to consider holding off on connecting the finished tailcone to the fuselage cage until you have installed the servos for the autopilot ad the control linkages as Bill H suggested. You'll also have to add some bracket(s) in the forward part of the tailcone for the Skyview, so make sure you have done that before connecting tailcone and fuselage.
There is no reason at this point to install the control surfaces on the tailcone but you should rivet the top skin on and make the tailcone structurally stable.
 
Maybe the thread you are thinking about was to do with the revised top skin for the new Skyview magnatometer. It is different to the old D180. :confused:
 
Thanks for the replies, gentlemen. After reading your comments, I agree: I'm probably thinking back about older posts that regarded not installing the turtle-deck skin (in the FUSELAGE kit) rather than anything that pertained to the aft fuselage (tailcone). I made this overhead rack last night to store the tailcone (aft fuselage) and stabilator, while I build the rest of the plane. It gets everything up and out of the way, and by going ahead and riveting on the top / aft-fuse skin, it also saves 150+ clecos from sitting up there doing nothing but holding down the skin :D

Thanks for the replies! I'll be sure to hold off on the turtle-deck and rear canopy as long as possible. Good stuff; thanks again.

racku.jpg
 
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