empennage fairing and closure...

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i am satisfied with how the empennage fairing and closer strips are coming out but it sure has been quite a bit of work. the plans are really very weak here, or perhaps it is just that i haven't been looking at them much since moving past the firewall...

i have decided to forgo the rubber seal and screw hardware for the closure strip in favor of a close fit and rivets. from a bit of research here it looks like a common solution.

now that i am about wrapped up with the basic fiberglass work on the tail i wonder just how much fine finishing i should do, or defer to the 'professionals'... just how much interim finishing and painting should be done to adequately protect the tips and bits during the first 6 months to a year before paint? knowing that the painter will strip whatever i put on, off... a basic protective rattle can of 988 is what i am inclined to do...

hmmmm....

 

[apkp777]

Looks really good Stephan. I am facing the same questions about interim finishing.

You say your going to rivet the lower fairing on? I am considering that. I have tapped the holes as Van's calls out, but there is no-way to countersink them as it'll remove some of the very few threads that would hold it on. I was thinking about riveting it on as I don't know why I would ever need to take it off. The other option was to install low profile button head screws?

 

[Rick6a]

..... I was thinking about riveting it on as I don't know why I would ever need to take it off. The other option was to install low profile button head screws?

Yet another option is not using hardware at all by permanently attaching the fairing with proseal.

 

[apkp777]

Yet another option is not using hardware at all by permanently attaching the fairing with proseal.

That's a thought. What did you do with the fastener holes?

 

[Rick6a]

That's a thought. What did you do with the fastener holes?

This is a -6A. There were no predrilled fastener holes. For fairing attachment, the plans direct the builder to drill a series of holes into the longeron for screw attachment. Unless perfectly executed, that idea seemed a bit dicey to me given the longeron is a major structural component. Why drill holes through the longeron if you really don't have to? Further, since I chose not to install the rubber seal, I saw no good reason to ever have to remove the fairing and chose to attach it with proseal instead.

 

[noelf]

I believe the only time...

...you might want to remove this metal fairing is during the Phase I flight test. If you need to adjust the angle of incidence of the horizontal stab, then having this item removable would make the final trimming (or replacement) easier.

 

[apkp777]

...you might want to remove this metal fairing is during the Phase I flight test. If you need to adjust the angle of incidence of the horizontal stab, then having this item removable would make the final trimming (or replacement) easier.

Is that ever necessary on an RV 9?

 

[RV8R999]

I didn't like the stock lower fairing for the -8 either. So I added fiberglass to the bottom half making the entire fairing one piece. Used clay from a local art-n-crafts and a scraper I rounded off as a forming tool. Took about two hours total time to prep and lay the glass. Another couple of hours of trimming, filling and sanding to get it close to finished. Used a hole finder to locate and drill the tapped holes in the lower longerons.

 

[RV8R999]