Sunday September 12, 2021
Empennage Tips (Empennage)
3.3 Hours

The first thing I did today was to reinforce the inside of the balsa rib with fiberglass.

I also filled the aft side of the rib with micro.

Then I covered my "oops" repair on the right elevator with some micro.

I sanded down the right HS tip, which seems nearly perfect.

I sanded the left HS tip as well, but it had a couple of spots I needed to fill. I managed to use the rapidly stiffening micro from earlier.

Then I got out the rudder bottom tip and started to trim it.

It took quite a few iterations to fit it to the rudder bottom.

Then I drilled it.

The plans have you drill the tip only to the R-918 bottom attach strip only, with nothing forward of that. I added a hole here into the R-710 horn brace.

I also added a hole in the R-902 spar. These extra holes give better stability in the front 1/4 of the tip.

I countersunk the holes in the tip for CS4-4 blind rivets.

I also shaped the forward end of the tip to give clearance to the bottom rudder attach bolt/bracket.

I think I'm going to wait to attach this tip permanently until I decide on a lighting package, since the various tail light options have slightly different mounting options. It will be easier to install them in the tip while it's still open.

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