Brief Description: Completed trim & fit of empennage fairing
I finished trimming the leading edge of the fiberglass empennage fairing today. I followed the plan drawings which called for butting the forward edge of the fairing up against and flush with the lower metal fairing that has the weatherstrip attached. It's about as good as possible without doing some fiberglass layups to make the component fit a little more snug.
The next step was to match drill three additional attach points at the forward edge of the fairing for nutplates. The nutplates were installed using some flush blind rivets (one on each side one inch up from the forward attach point of the lower metal fairing and one at the top center). Only remaining step is to countersink the fiberglass for flush head #6 screws.
A friend sent me some pictures of a fairing from Fairings Etc. for comparison and it does look better than the stock part. Kind of wish I had seen the aftermarket part before installing my stock fairing.
I think the weather strip and lower fairing looks reasonable but I am not completely happy with the way it meets the upper fairing at the leading edge. I may have to do some customizing in that area later just to make it more secure and a little more appealing.
