Trimmed Proseal

Empennage Test Fit

The end of the fuselage kit involves rigging flight controls via pushrod lengths and shaving the stops as required.  I pulled the empennage parts down from the shelf and installed everything somewhat loosely per plans.  I was happy with everything and didn't see any major issues except for the rudder pedal binding discussed in a previous post about the cable links being too short.  It's the little things that keep me going on this project and I really enjoyed moving the flight controls around and seeing everything move very smoothly IAW the plans.

Drilled the elevator horns IAW the plans...

 

Lighting

I bought the AeroLED position lights from Vans as part of the wing kit.  They were extremely easy to install.  The only snag was the connection to the wiring harness supplied with the wing.  The original was a five-place that didn't connect to the four-place connector that came with the lighting kit.  It was simple to cut off and replace, just surprised there's a mismatch here because both came from Vans.

BTW, don't forget that one light is red and one is green before you install.  Ask me how I know...

QB Wing Leak Test

The plans call for an additional leak test for peace of mind.  I elected to do both the balloon and manometer tests in combination with soapy water to check for leaks.  Fortunately, the only leaks I found were near the hardware I installed for the test itself.  The valve stem leaked a little until tightened, and the fuel cap leaked a little through the overlapping seam in the duct tape I used to try and seal it off during the test.  Having not built my wings, I was a little apprehensive about pulling off the tanks in the first place.  The first one took me about two hours (once I found all of the AN3 bolts) to remove.  The second took me a lot less time for removal and attaching.

I used 5/16" clear vinyl tubing for the manometer.  Here's a link to another builder's site that explains the process very well.  I checked each tank for about a day with 1 PSI before I removed the tubing and reinstalled the tanks on the wings.

I used a spare 2x3 frame that I wasn't using for my manometer test.  Low tech, but effective.

The balloon self-deflates after a bit, and is really just to ensure that you don't over pressurize the tank, so it's helpful for a little while if you just want to use soapy water to check for leaks quickly.

QB Wing Woes

It's my fault and I understand that.  I installed the lower gear braces, along with the AN6 and AN5 bolts that are a real pain.  However, I didn't realize until later that the openings for the landing gear and for the brake lines needed to be cut before the installation of the braces.  So, I had to remove the bolts (still a pain) and cut the openings.  The bolts and nuts were a little beat up; not bad, but just enough that I decided to replace them all before I installed the braces again. 

Rudder Pedals, Brakes and Brake Lines

I went with the stock brake line kit from Vans.  We'll see how it works out, but the installation was pretty easy.  For the rudder pedals, I liked the look of anodized aluminum that I had seen in other builds.  There was a local anodizing shop that did all four for $100, which was their minimum shop fee.  I was very happy with the result.

 

  

Without the help of other builders who have forged the way before me, I surely would be lost.  One such instance arises with the placement of the rudder pedals at the forward-most position.  This creates a a situation where the right rudder pedals when extended aft makes contact with the cross bar of the left rudder pedal before the rudder stop is reached.  E's RV-14 build site does a great job of highlighting the issue and discussing the fix.  Bottom line, don't use the forward-most position, or manufacture your own links that connect the rudder cables to the pedals.  I ordered some steel from Vans and did my best to make new ones.

Empennage Fiberglass Filling/Finishing

I've seen several aircraft flying (including the Vans owned airplane) that didn't have any filler to blend the transition from fiberglass to aluminum.  I got the idea from some other builders and we worked on this skill during the EAA course.  My desire is to have a near flawless transition between the two materials in the empennage, mainly for aesthetics, and maybe the extra .1 knots of speed due to aerodynamic effects.

I elected to use Aeropoxy products for my fiberglass work, including Aeropoxy Light which is a great filler that works very well once it's cured.  It sands very easily and smooths out nicely to provide a good base before primer.  I used a fairly thick coating in some places and then worked it down until there were no gaps.  It wasn't perfectly smooth in all places, but mainly due to slight imperfections in the glass or aluminum (e.g. waves/thickness).

I surfaced prep by sanding the aluminum and the fiberglass to ensure good bonding with the Aeropoxy.  I masked off the ares that I didn't want the filler with electrical tape.

This is what it looks like after initial application of the Aeropoxy.

And after sanding.  Very smooth.

The rudder required a lot of filler, including multiple layers.  I also added quite a bit at the forward top portion to smooth the transition between the rudder and VS.

Elevators

The bottom of the rudder presented some new challenges.  The main challenge being that the thickness of the fiberglass was thicker than where it met the aluminum.  So I had to build a little more filler on the aluminum side to aid the transition.  The second issue is that the bottom fairing on the rudder needs to be removable in order to maintain the tail position light.  I used the electrical tape on the fairing itself to prevent filler from getting on that surface.  I sanded everything with the fairing in place including the screws and am pretty happy with the results.

Here you can see where the fiberglass really sticks out above the surface of the rudder.

 

Empennage Fiberglass Work

After the EAA Fiberglass course, I was a little more confident to get started on the empennage fiberglass work.  However, there were still a few issues for which I was not prepared.  One is the inconsistency of the fiberglass pieces supplied in the kit.  Specifically, you can see in one of the pictures below the difference in thicknesses in some parts, especially at the flange edges.  This makes it a little more challenging to square those edges sufficiently to provide a clean and level transition from skin to the fairings.  I ended up using the edge of a sharp file to get the desired 90 degree angle and did my best to try to not take off too much material.  You can see that once the gloss coat is off the fairings, it's somewhat seethrough, but still structurally sound.

 

Once the VS fairing is fit, then the first mold is created that will be joined with the aft side of the fairing.  Cut slowly and work toward the final shape before sanding everything down to fit.  I used an extra layer or two of glass which did create some extra thickness that wasn't desired later on once the rudder was attached.  I would have only used two layers if I had to do it again.

Rudder fairing attached.  I used a file to take off the gloss coats in areas where I knew I would be adding Aeropoxy Light filler to fix the transition from VS to Rudder.

Elevator Fairings

 

This is the point where I realized that the rolled leading edge on the elevators wasn't correct to provide free travel during flight control movement.  I focused on the fiberglass fitting first and then fixed the shape of the leading edges later on.  Everything moves smoothly with proper distances between controls.

I didn't like the little "dip" between the rudder and the VS, so I added some filler here and am much more happy with the shape.  It was certainly a personal choice to add the time here, but I was waiting on my QB Wings/Fuselage, so definitely no hurry.

If I had this to do again, I would cut a little more off of the fairing attached to the HS.  Once the next few layers were added to the aft section of these fairings, the fit was a little tighter than I wanted it to be.  I sanded it down and (after consulting Vans) decided to back out the mounting bolts a tad to create some extra space.  This also helped with the leading edge of the elevator problem I discussed earlier.