I have been putting off placing the fiberglass end caps on the horizontal stabilizer and elevators because of my lack of knowledge and practical experience of working "glass". I asked my friend Rick McBride a long time ago for assistance....but we couldn't get together prior to him taking a job position in Germany for four years!!
Rick has built three E/AB aircraft and is currently building an RV10. Rick's RV8 won the Bronze Lindy at EAA Oshkosh in 2006. While in Germany he allowed me and another friend Rob fly his RV8 and I completed the condition inspection each year. It was an awesome four years!
Fast forward to 2018. Rick completed his job in Germany and moved back in April. He is moving back to his native land in Colorado. So he flew the RV8 back to CO after stopping in at Airventure. Now he was back in town to finish his job her in VA prior to heading out west.
My work schedule has been crazy but we were able to both be available this weekend. Rick leaves next week. I wanted some of that "award winning" assistance with learning the ins and outs of fiberglass.
We started by prepping the fairings for the elevators. We got working on them. It was a great time of soaking up Ricks experience. We got the left elevator up to a point and set it aside for the epoxy to cure. We set it up on a chair that I didn't love but wasn't real worried about setting the elevator on it either. Once agian complacency takes it toll !!! While I was mixing some epoxy, I heard a bang and my right elevator was on the floor....with a nice ding and bend in it! My heart fell to my stomach, but hoping that it was unscathed.....no such luck!! The elevator had a ding on the trailing edge and was oil canning....Rick and I determined it would be a replacement as the fix.
Anyway....it was moot to continue to work it so we continued on the right elevator which we got to the place of installing the fairing cap and getting it blended in with micro.
A long day with the good, bad and ugly. I really learned a lot w
