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Empennage fairing drilling??

amaris

Well Known Member
Thanks to the incredibly detailed Van's instructions "see drawing 44 for the empennage fairing installation details", I'm wondering how I match drill the fairing attachment since I have the dark gray gel coat and can't just see through it.

Any tips, techniques?

Anyone else doing a fiberglass underside fairing? I'm fresh out of the Sportair Workshop and think I can do it!
 
I think you can just drill a pilot hole, cleco and drill/cleco the next hole using the empenage skin prepunched holes as guide.
 
Well yes, but I can?t get in there to back drill. Seems I need the VS in place to keep things in alignment. No?
 
I used a laser on a camera tripod, set it up square to the screw hole then put the fairing in place and drill the cross with a small bit. Use a needle file to enlarge the hole if you are a smidgen off. Bit fiddly in that you need to move the laser for each hole but no big deal in the scheme of things.
Russell
 
On the vertical and horizontal stab, draw two lines starting at the screw hole and extending out 1.75" to 2.5", angle should be between 30° and 45°. Now lay the empennage fairing in place, tape it down, etc. Now re-draw the two lines on the fairing, the intersection will be the location of the hole in the VS and HS.

Cheers!

B
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I was surprised at how easy the hole duplicator worked. I thought for sure it would cause misalignment from being lifted, but each hole worked and then I was done!
 
I saw this thread months ago when I was doing mine; figured I'd follow up for others. I bought some strap duplicators intending to do it that way. The guy helping me said those work but a better method is to just draw a line from the center of the holes, make some tick marks on the line (at know intervals, I think I used 1.5",2",2.5" on my ruler. Then put the fairing on, put the ruler on the line with the scribe marks at the proper locations and mark the hole. I did this, the holes were centered; worked well and is very simple.
 
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