Section 11 Empennage Attachment: can it wait?

I am done with the tail cone and the next section is Empennage attachment; however I have the wing kit coming tomorrow and I need to make room for it in my workshop. If I proceed with the Empennage attachment, the first thing I will have to do once I'm through it is undo the work to save space. Is there any problem postponing Empennage attachment until I am done with the wings and fuselage? The best solution for me would be to do this work at the end, in the hangar at the airport but there may be some issues with the controls of stabilator and rudder that will require to perform the Empennage attachment earlier. What says you, guys who have been trough this?

Wait...

Because of space limitations, I did not do the first install of the stabilator until I had built the wings and fuselage and had the aircraft up on the gear. Then, when working on the tailcone fairing it was finally necessary to install the stab.

The tailcone is very light and trying to install the stabilator to this light piece of aluminum structure was also a challenge I chose to do without.

There were no issues with this that I found. Others may disagree.

Tony

Any order you want

You can build the plane in any order that you want. But, it will slow you down. Instead of following the plans step by step, you will have to think and plan and figure out how to do the next step without having done the prerequisite step. For instance, I delayed putting the wings on because the work area was too small. Then I could not drill and install the flaperon torque tubes. I could not put the baggage compartment covers on because the torque tubes were not done. I could not install the fuel tank because the baggage covers were not on. One problem leads to another. Yes, you can deviate from the order of construction. That will create problems. You will figure out how to solve those problems eventually. But it will take you much longer to build the plane than if you worked in the proper order. Sometimes I work harder trying to do something an easier way.
Joe

You can certainly put aside all work and finish the wings. For us early builders, the wing kit was the 1st kit, the others were not yet available.

Finish the wings and put them in the stands and then continue with the assembly.

Working on the wings will NOT slow you down.

Normally I listen very carefully to anything Joe says ....

... because he is a highly respected member of the forum and has contributed mightily to the body of RV-12 knowledge. But in this case I question the "much" word in the following quote.

Mich48041 said:

But it will take you much longer to build the plane than if you worked in the proper order.
Joe

Click to expand...

I postponed the tail cone attachment longer than the plans says, because I wanted to be able to save the space and make the fuselage more manueverable for plumbing, wiring, flight controls, etc. I did all these tasks and others with the fuselage up on it's side, which I think was a time saver, and offset the time used to plan the out-of-sequence work.

You can follow my sequence on my log - see signature lline.

John P.

I was wrong

Marty and Big John are right, I was wrong. I also built the wings first with no problem. When I posted yesterday, I was thinking about the little steps that I postponed for various reasons that slowed my progress.
Joe

I just attached my tail cone to the fuselage over the weekend and I remember one of the first steps being "remove the empennage." That was pretty easy for me; it's still sitting in my basement. The only reasons I can see for attaching it at the completion of the tail cone are to 1) make sure it attaches okay while you still have the opportunity to fix anything that isn't quite right, and 2) to store it someplace other than the basement floor.

Thank you all, the guidance is clear and unanimous. I will now wrap and store my tailcone without second thoughts. As I will likely unwrap it around Christmas, I will try to get some gift wrap for it...
Jean-Pierre

Section 11 Empennage Attachment: Can It Wait?

You bet. I built my fuselage, empennage, wings, v stab and h stab in my basement. I also did my canopy work there as it was easier to heat in the winter. I could only temporarily attach the roll bar as the fuselage would not fit through the bulkhead door with it attached. When Spring arrived I took the big parts out to my hanger outside and assembled them.

You can also fit your wings without the empennage attached. This makes it a breeze to fit the torque tubes accurately by working through the rear of the baggage bulkhead opening and the removed floor covers.

Art Pennanen

ARPENN said:

You can also fit your wings without the empennage attached. This makes it a breeze to fit the torque tubes accurately by working through the rear of the baggage bulkhead opening and the removed floor covers.

Art Pennanen

Click to expand...

Art, I believe you meant without the tailcone attached because with the tailcone you would need a very long arm to fit the torque tubes
JP

Section 11 Empennage Attachment: Can It Wait?

Yes I should have I should have said Tailcone. Since the Tailcone is part of the Empennage Kit I just used that term incorrectly.

Art P.