May 8 2004 - After a week long work trip, I hit the glass work again. I got the tail fairing trimmed and eliminated the gaps by applying epoxy and fibers to the fairing and then setting in place.
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May 8 2004 - After a week long work trip, I hit the glass work again. I got the tail fairing trimmed and eliminated the gaps by applying epoxy and fibers to the fairing and then setting in place. | ||||
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With the fairing fitting well, I started to mold the glass around the front and under to the aft edge of the stab. Here the clay has been formed and I taped off the areas outside the fairing. The whole mess was then coated with mold release. | ||||
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A better view of the fairing prior to laying up the glass. The filler between the fairing and the skins really worked great. | ||||
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I started with two layers of 8.8oz cloth that butted up against the factory fairing at the front lip. I ten added a piece that wrapped around the entire front. This was followed with two more layers of 8.8oz cloth but this time the cloth wrapped around and up onto the fairing. The last item is peel-ply to make the exterior smoother and require less work to finish off. | ||||
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The lead weight is keeping the fairing tightly in place while this mess dries. | ||||
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May 9 2004 - After the epoxy dried, I removed the fairing and trimmed the edges of the new additions. Here it sits on the table basically ready to prep for primer. | ||||
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The fit is excellent all around. | ||||
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Only two screws on the top side, one into the vertical stab and one into the horizontal stab. The only remaining fit to this fairing is the aft tab at the bottom. I used 6-32 screws and nutplates at all locations. The aftmost screws is a one-eared nutplate since the skin stops right where the other ear would have been located. You can just make out the NAS1097AD3 rivet head between the screw and skin rivet | ||||
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There are three screws on the lower side, aft top, aft side, and a middle side screw. I have not decided whether to countersink these or not but I'm leaning toward just leaving pan head screws. If I were to do it over again, I'd probably leave the glass long enough to pick up the forward screw hole (filled with a pop rivet here) just in case it tends to bow out later. Just run down to the longeron overlap and then go aft. | ||||
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May 11 2004 - Not the greatest picture, but the tail fairing is complete and mounted in position. I also mounted the access plates at the rear of the stab for elevator horn access. | ||||
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