Fabricated the elevator stops and matched drilled them along with the aft deck. Turning into a pro at fabrication of these parts. After a few of them it’s nothing anymore.

Also match drilled the shoulder harness brackets. The whole assembly was then tore down and is now lying in pieces on the garage floor. :( I hated to do that after getting it all together. Lots of deburring, dimpling, counter sinking, and priming to come…

Got the top skins on and matched drilled. Everything is now on and match drilled except for a few small parts that need to be fabricated.

Took some measurements of the garage to see if I will be able to fit if I attach the fuselage to the tail when it’s complete. Tim Olson has some measurements he just posted. I think I’ll just be able to make it, which is nice.

I have to include a photo of the inside. It looks much better in person. It’s a shame I have to take it all apart one more time. You can see all the stiffeners that need to be match drilled running along the sides, bottom and top. This took a bit of time to make sure they were all lined up and such.

Was able to make good progress today on the tail cone. The left and right side skins were put on and match drilled to the stiffeners. No extra holes in my fingers today.

The pieces are getting larger the further along I get in the kit. Gives you a better idea of things to come. Now that the neighbors can see this from the road they are all stopping over to have a look. Makes for good conversation.

The last major component of the empennage has begun. All the bulkheads were match drilled then mated with the bottom skin and match drilled. The assembly is hung upside down to attach the bulkheads to the bottom skin.

The plans called for doing this on a set of sawhorses, but I just decided to use the 2×4 method as the picture shows. Idea stolen from Tim Olson.

While match drilling the bottom stiffeners I drilled a #40 hole in my left middle finger. Ouch! About half way through. I immediate though how I was going to fix this hole. Maybe deburr and dimple it and fill with an 3-3 flush rivet?

Wrapped up the elevators today. Last night I double-flush riveted the trailing edges of the elevators. They turned out much better than the rudder. I now have it down to a repeatable process and it looks good. Makes me want to do the rudder over. Maybe if I have some down time between kits I’ll do just that.

Counterbalance lead weights were added to outboard rib tips. After match drilling the trim tab hinges to the elevators and trim tabs, they were riveted in place and both elevators are complete. On to the tail cone before ordering the wing kit.

Total Hours on Elevators: 44.5 Total Hours To Date: 123.0

The skins are now on the elevators. Much the same process as the rudder. I imagine the wing control surfaces will be much the same also. Not much trouble in this step. Everything went pretty smooth.

ProSeal is on the trailing edge of the elevators and weighted down like before with the rudder. Foam ribs are also ProSeal’d in the elevators and the trim tabs. I’ll give it a couple days to cure and then finish these babies up.

Worked on the next step of the elevators which was to back rivet the access reinforment plates and rib halves onto the elevator skins. Nutplates were also riveted to the reinforcement plates and spars.

Tried out a new process with the elevators. I am priming a section of parts as I need them instead of everything in one big bunch. It breaks up the monotony a little. It’s very convenient because I am using the rattle can version of the primer. It is working out good. Still no need to bother with all that extra time and prep and cleanup with the HVLP gun. Glad I threw that thing in the dumpster after it’s first use.

Switched over to work on the trim tabs for a bit. Both the elevators and the trim tabs require the use of ProSeal to bond in a set of foam ribs in the trailing edge. The elevators also require it for the trailing edge where the AEX wedge is.

The ProSeal has a short working time and isn’t all that cheap, so I wanted to get both the elevators and the trim tabs to that point in the plans so I can do them both at the same time. I finished up the trim tabs to that point so now I’ll go back and get the elevators there also.

Spent most of this session dimpling and deburring all the elevator skins, ribs, etc. This takes a while. I need to get that dimple table top built before I order the wing kit. Should make things a lot easier with one person at the controls.

My order came in from Aircraft Spruce and I was able to get Torque Seal put on the nuts of the Horizontal Stabilizer. This stuff goes across the nut and onto the threads. It dries hard and if the nuts start to un-torque you can easily tell because the halves will come apart.

Have all the completed pieces stored away upstairs in the guest bedroom. I eventually plan on getting a storage spot at the local Self Storage down the street. I’ll probably do that when I finish the tailcone. Not sure if I’m going to do a test fit of all the tail feathers before then or not. We’ll see if there’s enough room.

Made a little jig that makes it a lot easier to countersink the pieces of trailing edge extruded aluminum. In a past post I mentioned issues that I had. With this, there is no issue. It comes out great on both sides. There’s a scrap piece of trailing edge in there that offsets the working piece the 10 degrees so it is flat. Got the idea from Andrew and it only took a few minutes to make. If any builders out there need a scrap piece of trailing edge I have some that was left over from trimming the elevator pieces. Just drop me an email and I’ll send some out to you. I just clamp this little bugger on the drillpress table and we’re off.

Started the elevators today. Trying to take advantage of the couple days off for New Year’s holiday. Started out by assembling the inboard ribs and the tips. These were pretty straight forward. The ribs are similar to the rudder assembly.

After that the skeleton was clecoed together and the skins and tips were put on for final drilling. The trailing edge was trimmed to size and inserted. The trailing edge is also similar to the rudder assembly and will take double-flush rivets, which should be easier the second time around.

Had a little issue with putting the tips on. The plans don’t say exactly how the counterweight skin, spar, tip rib, and skins all come together at this point. There’s a little overlapping. Reading ahead in the plans you can see better how it all fits together and how the main skins lay on top.

The close out tabs have to be bent over 90 degrees. You have to make sure which skin you are working on and the direction of the bend. Just follow the plans and everything works out. Funny how that is…

As I type this everything is tore back down for deburring and dimpling before priming. Same steps as always. I’m getting better at this whole project with every section.