tail attachment

hi all,
i have kept the side panels off my fuselage and it has been great having so much access. i am now at the point to hang my engine so i will now finish the fuselage for structural rigidity before the engine.after the side panels and before the engine i will attach main gears, front gear is already on.
my question is about attaching the tail section. because of limited heated space i would like to leave the tail off until after the engine and probably the cowl is fitted. am i at risk of misalignment if i wait this long? am i going to run into problems rigging if i wait? anyone left the tail off until the end?
thanks for any input.

I left the tail section off of my RV-12 ELSA until right before I took it out to the hangar for final assembly. You can easily install the engine, avionics, cowling, etc. with the tail section not attached. You need the tail attached for final rigging of the tail surfaces and miscellaneous wiring, tubing, etc. It is truly amazing that, due to precise engineering and CNC manufacturing, all of the tail section-to-fuselage attachment rivets fit without issue.

As you near the tail-to-fuselage joining event, you can bring the unattached tail section and fuselage closely together at a small angle to enable you to more readily access the final wiring and other internal connections. This avoids your having to climb into the baggage compartment to final connect the wires, tubing, etc.

ps -- I was really tempted to put a wiring connector for the stabilator trim motor wires at the tail section-to-fuselage interface to facilitate the tail wiring process, but elected to wire the plane up as shown in the plans (i.e., no additional connector).

thanks david. a sub d connector is already in place there and that wire run is attached by it.

Dittoes for all the advise David offered. I left just enough extra length in the tubes and wires that I could stand in the gap and make connections, then zip tie them all down after nailing the thing together. Enjoy!

I put mine on a couple hours before the DAR showed up. No point rushing in to it.

Dick,

Didn't you do taxi tests and the ground PAPs before the DAR arrived? I try to be at a point where all I need is the AWC and insurance to fly when the DAR shows up. On my second homebuilt the guy looked it over, smiled and asked "how does it fly?" Acknowledging that it was ready to go.

Hard to see how any ground testing could be done without the tail.

Rich

What's the PAP? Never mind, just kidding

You're scaring me, Tony!