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.