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hendrik

Well Known Member
Today I dimpled the ribs and spars of the vertical stabilizer. Of course including those holes where the empennage fairing will be attached. I guess the best way to continue is leave the holes in the skin undimpled and in the finish kit use K1100 platenuts rather than the K1000 specified in the plans. Right? Or will the holes for the screws be so large that the dimple simply disappears when I drill the holes?
 
I left the holes in the plans empty with dimples. reason is that I may use less attach points then called out and rivet them.
 
Don't worry

If you do indeed decide to use all the screws as recommended, the dimples will mostly disappear (especially with #8 screws). However, many folks decide to use far fewer screws for their fairing, and end up with rivets all along the HS and VS except for the very back.
 
My old plans didn't specify where the Empennage fairing screw holes were to be located. When I held the part in place, I realized that the only possible location was along the rivet lines for the root ribs of the Vert & Hor stabs.
I ended up drilling out existing rivets and installing the plate nuts there. This was still possible in assembly with the fuselage, the rivet squeezer 'just' fit, but the platenuts called out for the fuselage tail cone farther fwd would require climbing into the tail cone :( So I'm searching the forum for any pictures or discriptions about laying up more fiberglass to the fairing so it will reach the existing 6-32 holes in the longeron for the lower aluminum/rubber strip fairings?
 
I glassed my fairing all the way around the bottom of the emp to form one solid piece. I did not like the rubber channel and separate aluminum piece for the bottom. I used the drilled and tap'd holes in the longerons to secure the bottom section of the fairing with #6 screw and SS tinnerman washers.
28iylqw.jpg
 
wasn't my idea - got it from guys on this forum. Very easy to fab using modeling clay as a form.
 
The gap underneath the -8 series horizontal stab is significantly wider than it is on the -6 series of RV's. A relatively easy task that requires little in the way of fiberglass
knowledge or expertise, epoxy, 3" wide fiberglass tape, modeling clay and some form of parting agent (I used clear packing tape and liquid mould release) is about it. Later
and for a good tight fit, random gaps are easily filled in using microballoons or fairing filler. You can see a build up of fairing filler in the first photo. As graphically shown in
the second photo, finishing the empennage fairing in this manner not only requires far fewer fasteners, but also eliminates any need to drill holes into the longeron.

351s3dz.jpg
 
Thanks Rick;
A couple of questions for you guys:
1) Did your lay-up sag before it set?
I can't turn my fuselage upside down to do it. :(
2) Where do you get the modeling clay?
 
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