{"id":5824,"date":"2022-11-14T21:09:42","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T20:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rv-7.dk\/?p=5824"},"modified":"2023-07-01T11:45:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T10:45:03","slug":"empennage-tips-and-fairings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rv-7.dk\/?p=5824","title":{"rendered":"Empennage tips and fairings"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the next steps was to drill the holes in the elevator horns where the control rod connects. To properly align these holes, I needed to make the pushrods.
\nIt was a simple matter of cutting the tubes to length, then matchdrilling the ends to the tubes.
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Before riveting them in position, I poured some epoxy primer into the tubes, swirled it around and let the excess drain.
\nAfter the primer had cured, I pressed the ends into position and riveted them. They still need primer on the exterior, but that I will do later.
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With the aft control rod in place and aligned in neutral position, the elevators locked in neutral position, I marked and drilled the first elevator horn, then added a wooden block as drill guide to drill the other elevator horn.
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My first rudder stops\u00a0 weren’t quite big enough, so I had to make some new ones.
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The horizontal and vertical stabilizer tips had to be closed at the rear ends, so I made templates for making covers.
\nI made the covers 3 plies, with peel ply on the backs.
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I let the them cure over a bucket, to give them curves.
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Back on the aircraft, I superglued them in place…
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…then I removed them and added epoxy reinforcement on the inside. They still need a bit of filler and sanding, but I think they turned out great.
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I worked a bit on the rudder tip and bottom fairing too.
\nThe tip was pretty easy to do, it need a bit of trimming to fit, and the trailing end had to be extended with some epoxy filler, but here it is riveted in place.
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The lower fairing also needed some trimming.
\nIt needs a cutout for the rudder horn…
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…and to have the rear nav\/strobe light installed. This took a while, as the inside of the faring was very rough. I had to grind a lot of material out before the small brass nuts for the light assy would lay flat inside, then I glued them in place with epoxy filler.
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After a lot of trimming and finetuning, the bottom fairing is riveted in place also.
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