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Move directly from Section 10 to Section 11?

bk1bennett

Well Known Member
Hurray! I finished the riveting of the empennage kit this week. Section 10 is complete. It's been a long haul but the pace is picking up as I get past a lot of difficult times at my full-time job. I may indeed finish this project before I drool or die! QB Wings and Fuselage are on the way, which helps my case.

Section 11 is Empennage Attach. The plans say that it can be done at a later time. I'd like to launch into it now for three reasons:

1. It would be really "cool" to see the assemblies come together and get some photos (ok, that's a somewhat ridiculous reason, but, hey, at this stage of the build having something that actually looks like part of an airplane would be a huge boost)

2. I'd like to find and deal with the gotchas now rather than when I get to the hangar. It looks like it's a section with some tricky steps in it.

3. It would be good to do the fiberglass work with the assemblies in place to line up the vertical stab/rudder tips and the horizontal stab/elevator.

The downside is that after I'm done putting it all together I have to take it apart to store it in my garage until I get the wings, fuselage, etc. all done. It's more work and time that I could be spending on the build, especially if the QB kits come in before I finish.

Those of you who have done this before, do you have any advice or other considerations?

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I am doing this on my 10. The only thing I wouldn't do is install the trim. I put everything together to include the trim. Now I have pulled it all apart, and I am painting. Once done I will hang the parts in the rafters until it is time to assemble. It is nice to check some boxes finished.

I assume the trim is similar to the 10. It was a pain and I'll need to adjust it at final assembly so I gave up on it.
 
I put it together, checked all the fit and range of movement, adjusted rudder travel etc. Then disassembled until move to hangar and ready to fly.
 
Same question

I am close to this point as well and received advice to just wait until later in the build.

I think I will go ahead with chapter 11 as well, are there any considerations or changes you need to make with regards to hardware that you use, etc if you are planning on disassembling after you complete the steps? Temporary bolts, steps NOT to do, etc? Or other than the trim mentioned, just complete the chapter and then disassemble afterwards?

Thanks
 
I am close to this point as well and received advice to just wait until later in the build.

I think I will go ahead with chapter 11 as well, are there any considerations or changes you need to make with regards to hardware that you use, etc if you are planning on disassembling after you complete the steps? Temporary bolts, steps NOT to do, etc? Or other than the trim mentioned, just complete the chapter and then disassemble afterwards?

Thanks

I used all the recommended hardware, but not fully torqued to spec. Just enough to hold everything in place. I ended up making shims for the center bearing on the HS because standard washer stackup wouldn't quite fit all the gaps. I used feeler gauges to get an exact gap (between the bearing and elevator horns standard "thick" washers) then ordered some SS sheet as close to that thickness as I could get to make the shims. Hard part is drilling precise 1/4" holes in the SS sheet. IIRC i clamped it between two pieces of wood, and worked up to full size hole and used 1/4 reamer for the last step up.

I ended up replacing some of the hardware with new on final assembly. I left the HS and VS on for paint.

I waited until assembly in hangar to final fit the fiberglass HS/VS fairing but fit everything else first time through Section 11. Since I live in Florida and was doing the first assembly in my air-conditioned garage, this made sense to me. I wanted to move to hangar, install wings, re-install tail, final fit everything and fly as quickly as reasonably possible. That turned out to be around 3 weeks, but I was spending long days every day in the hangar to make that happen.
 
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I completely assembled mine using the called out bolts but just hardware store standard nuts (SS). Then did all the fairings and then disassembled - it is all now in storage in cradles while I work on the wings.

The shims is a good idea for the elevators. I did washers as per plans and it is a bit of a pain. Plus the large steel thin washer they supply is a bit dodgy in my opinion (seems subject to rusting to me).
 
Another timely thread - I'm circling back to section 11 after completing section 10 six years ago. Perhaps its just my organization, but I probably wasted an hour yesterday looking for the drill bushing for HS stabilizer. "That perfect place" I put it 6 years ago so I wouldn't lose it wasn't so obvious. I finally found it was able to knock out the first few pages.

If I were to do it over again. I'd complete section 11 after 10 and then disassemble.
 
I did section 11 after riveting the tailcone to the fuselage. That let me rig the elevator travel with the pushrod attached. But I had to remove the tail feathers a year ago to move the fuselage out of the basement and up to my garage. Then I moved it to the airport this past weekend and now I can’t find the baggie where I stashed the empennage attach hardware last fall.

If I had it to do over, I might have done section 11 after attaching the wings. But I would at least do it after the pushrods are in place.
 
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