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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date: 9-10-2017
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Number of Hours: 5.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Empennage fairing
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Long frustrating session devoted to trimming and fitting the empennage fairing and installing the associated nutplates. The trimming part went ok, but installing the nutplates turned into a multi-hour ordeal that was finally--and mercifully--finished. The biggest challenge was the fact that there is zero access to the aft tailcone at this point, and even if I had a little help shooting the rivets, I'm not sure I could have fit that far back in the fuselage with the pitch pushrod installed...and I'm not taking that back out if I don't have to.
The 20 or so nutplates on the vertical and horizontal stabs were relatively easy to set, but due to the curvature of the assemblies, and also due to the fluting on some of the surfaces, each nutplate took about 10 minutes as I had to drill, debur, countersink, and then individually bend the tabs on each plate. The last six took almost two hours as I had to do the same process and then figure out how to get my hand, with a bucking bar, into one of the two small lightening holes in the aft bulkhead, and then somehow get the bar on the rivet...all while standing on a step stool and holding the rivet gun in the other hand.
Once I got the rivets set, I worked on the fit of the fairing. It turns out that my drilling was a bit premature, and some of the holes in the fiberglass don't line up very well. Fortunately I have a lot of ways to fix that, so I filled all the holes with epoxy and called it a day. I'll fix that little issue next weekend.
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