Empennage Fairing Installation

[pvalovich]

Anyone have any good ideas regarding fitting the emp fairing? I'm using the standard Vans fairing that came with my -8A kit. A couple questions:

1. What's the best way to feather the edges into the metal. I went through a fiberglass **** drill with my wheel pants - something I'd like to avoid, although it eventuallly workedout ok. My fairing fits tight throughout so I'm tempted to just bevel/fleather the edges without additional fiberglass layers, then micro.

2. Where is the best location near the leading edge to make the upper fiberglass / lower metal fairing transition. With the curviture of the upper fairing slightly arounf the horiz stab, instead of right near the leading edge, I could move the transition sightly aft but wonder how that might affect the eventual installation of the fubber channel.

3. Any general words of advice. It seems to fit so well out of the box I gotta be missing something!

Windscreen fairing, canopy fairing and baggage door complete; vert stab back on. Down to low single digits for parts remaining. Finally get the feeling it might fly sometime soon.

[yakdriver]

Best way to fit the Vans fairing is to throw it away and get one from the guy in Arizona. I'm having a senior moment here and can't remember his name. I spent hours on my Vans fairing with unacceptable results. Got the Arizona fairing and it fit perfectly out of the box. Don

[N941WR]

Check out the 6/3/06 entries of this page from my web site.

Notice the enlarged inspection panels I made and how I cut the tail off the stock Van's fairing.

I must have gotten lucky because I didn't have a problem with this fairing.

[yakdriver]

Bill, Vans must have a new vendor making the fairings. The one I got with my 2005 RV7 kit didn't come close to fitting. Don

[Ironflight]

My 2004 vintage fairing fit passably well - I doubt that due to variations in tail mounting you'd get a better fit from any random supplier. It still required some tapering and fairing with filler and epoxy of course.

On the question of transitioning from the fiberglass to the lower metal fairings, I sidestepped that by laying up fiberglass lowers and making them part of the upper fairing. Many folks have done this - it is pretty easy (even for a fiberglass duffer like myself) and looks nice when it is done.

Paul

[mike newall]

Fairings Etc.

http://www.fairings-etc.com/

They fit really well and if there are slight problems, just heat them up with a hot air gun and manipulate....

They use vinyl ester resin which is slightly heat formable.

[yakdriver]

That's where I got mine. Don

[flickroll]

I used one of the new fairings from Van's. It is of good quality, but like Paul said, variations in mounting the tail will really mess up the fit of any mass produced fairing. For my installation, I wound up cutting slits on the left and right side of the fairing, and it was actually in 3 pieces when I finished cutting it. I then taped the pieces to the empennage and fuselage (both of which were covered with ample amounts of packing tape). I then started glassing it with epoxy and light cloth and peel ply. I now have a fairing that fits like a glove with attach screws only at the very front and at the very back. I could have gone the modeling clay route, but for me starting with a decent fairing made the process relatively fast.