Tailcone - Part 4

The side skins are on.  Again, there was a little bit of wrangling to be done with those frames.  I found the best way to get these skins on is to start from the rear, about 6 inches from the rear..  and start to insert rivets in every other hole, cleco as you go.  That works great..and easily until you get to the forwardmost frame.  It seemed like I had to pull the skin away, and slightly bend the entire skin so that the holes were facing upward a little (I don't know how else to describe it).   

Anyhow, once the line was riveted, I went back and did the rivets in the frame.

At this point, you need to run the elevator trim control wires, and the static and pitot tubes.

Next step is adding the RTV silicone around the static ports..  finishing the rear bulkhead.. placing the last three skins, the VS forward attachment.

Tailcone - Part 3

Two more skins attached to the tailcone.

  

Its as straightforward as it looks.  The skins didn't initially seem like they'd line up well with the three fuselage frames.. but once clecos went in place, the two surfaces got pulled together nicely.  Some wrestling with the frames, but they are really flexible.  In the process, some of the primer got scratched off in some areas on the skins.. so I'll have to touch that back up.

The bottom skins and these bottom/side skin's holes matched up pretty well until I got forward of the big frame.  I don't think i had to ream any holes.. these bottom/side skins are pretty thick, so I think that's what made it a little difficult at first.  The trick is to place a rivet in every other hole.. cleco as you go.  The rivets are what make the skins line up perfectly, not the clecos.

Wing Kit Received & Inventoried

Received the wing kit.  I was hoping to see two landing lights now that I switched over to the RV12iS..  oh well.  However, I noticed that the wing's electrical connectors have provisions for adding a sync wire for wig-wag operation.

The inventory was finished and I'm missing two rear-spar doublers.  Van's is sending them out.  I won't need them for at least a couple weeks.  I have not gone through the various bags yet.  I'll assume its all there for now.

I learned that its best to empty the bags into screw trays from Home Depot, rather than store everything in bags.  The instructions to not refer to bag #'s.

OD delivered on time!  without damage!  Only issue was that the crates sat on their dock for a couple days before the called me.  I wasn't in a rush.

Tailcone - Part 2

All part edges have been sanded, surfaces scuffed with red scotchbrite and primed.  Now for assembly...

Some J-stiffeners need to be added to the two bottom skins. There is a shear clip on the end of it..

They were attached to the bottom skins' J-stiffeners with two rivets (not shown).

The bottom skins were fastened to each other:

Rudder (finished, again)

I had a few parts on order to re-do the rudder skeleton.  They came in, and I replaced the messed up parts (the spar, most ribs (I was able to salvage a couple), upper hinge and doubler the plate).  Rather than rehash everything here, I took a proof video of the skelton:

Skinning the rudder was easy.. especially after having skinned all the other tail feathers.  Some guys did an edge-break on the leading edge of the skin.  The plans didn't call for that.. and the skins sat completely flat with each other anyway.  

Tailcone

No photos or videos to post yet.  Over the past week, I've been sanding the parts, roughing up the surfaces, etching everything and priming.  I had meant to do the tailcone's bottom skin.. but instead I had done the top skin.  It has to get done too, though I was just looking to have the first skin ready for when I start assembly.

This weekend I'll start the assembly of whatever I can do, short of the skins.  The rear bulkhead looks like it'll take awhile with all those different types of rivets in it anyway.

So, nothing too interesting to see with the tailcone yet.  Maybe tomorrow I'll have something to show.

Here is a video of the tailcone ribs and rear bulkhead preparation  (nothing assembled yet):