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Tip Fairing

F

findane

Active Member
I getting ready to install the empennage fairings. Is there a better process for plugging the hole than the one in the RV manual.
 
It's the back of the fairing on the horizontal and vertical stabilizer. The manual calls for a foam or balsa "plug" with fiberglass reinforcing.
 
I went to my local hobby store and bought a sheet of thin balsa. Temporarily installed (cleco) the fiberglass tip in place, and cut/sand a piece of balsa to fit. Tacked it in place with a few drops of CA adhesive (super glue), and it was ready to lay a couple layers of fiberglass over it.

I fretted over this too, but it's actually a lot easier and quicker than the manual, and these instructions, make it sound. If this is your first go with fiberglass, then just dive right in. There's nothing you can possibly mess up that cannot be fixed with sandpaper, more fiberglass/epoxy, and some time.
 
I used a couple of pieces of scrap aluminium sheet to finish those off.

However, in the latest in a loooong line of Bugger! moments, I neglected to have the fairings installed on the plane, so the aluminium blanks held them wider than the HS/VS themselves, so I had to have a slight fold in the aluminium to make them fit.

So make sure they're installed to get the correct width! :eek:
 
krw5927 said:
I went to my local hobby store and bought a sheet of thin balsa. Temporarily installed (cleco) the fiberglass tip in place, and cut/sand a piece of balsa to fit. Tacked it in place with a few drops of CA adhesive (super glue), and it was ready to lay a couple layers of fiberglass over it.

I fretted over this too, but it's actually a lot easier and quicker than the manual, and these instructions, make it sound. If this is your first go with fiberglass, then just dive right in. There's nothing you can possibly mess up that cannot be fixed with sandpaper, more fiberglass/epoxy, and some time.
Click to expand...

I did the same. Worked well. You can also concave the balsa slightly if you wish.

IMG_20151128_202108.jpg
 
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I used blue foam from Lowes, epoxy/microballon mix, and one layer of fine weave fiberglass. I used this same process to fill in the ends of all of my flying surfaces. You can see examples at my Kitlog site.
 
I filled the ends of the fairings with aluminum sheet from the trim bundle that Van's provides. Just trim until it fits snug, then scuff up the interior edges and bond it in place with some epoxy and flox. I used micro to fill the exterior side.

Some photos here.
 
I measured the radius needed and fabricated a curved fiberglass layup to use as raw material to trim and flox into place.
sounds hard. It was not. Really easy to use a piece of blue plastic covered aluminum scrap as a mold.

layup

tip
 
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Is there a reason?

219PB said:
I used blue foam from Lowes, epoxy/microballon mix, and one layer of fine weave fiberglass. I used this same process to fill in the ends of all of my flying surfaces. You can see examples at my Kitlog site.
Click to expand...

Is there a reason to fill all flying surface like that? Sever seen that before...?!
 
Elevator trim tab warp

The trim tab inboard trailing edge is 2 to 3 degrees lower than the outboard edge. It looks like the trim tab has twisted. Is there a solution or doesn't it matter.
 
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