Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Mounting Empennage, fuel tanks.

 Mounting Empennage, fuel tanks
48 Hours  
I mounted the horizontal stabilizer and elevators on the fuse. I actually spent about a half a day leveling the plane in all directions. Measured as per plans. Mounted horizontal stab with 0 deg incidence. I have three levels in my shop and I used all of them. A man can drive himself crazy trying to get everything perfect. Every level seem to be just a hair off of each other.

Setting the 0 deg incidence with the tooling hole in the rib as per plans.
Double checking 0 deg incidence.
Drilling holes! No turning back now!
It is not pictured, but I also temporarily mounted the elev and installed the pushrod. Plans said to mount the tips so I did.
I did not have this piece, F-781. It must have been on the original empenage I sold to Sweetwater guy. I was tempted to fabricate it but as it is such an important part, I ordered it.
I got the vertical stab mounted. I made sure it was perpendicular to the horizontal  stab and put a straight edge behind the hinge brackets and got them straight.
Mounted.
Thats me.
Temporarily mounted the rudder.

Installed rudder tips.
Removed the rudder several times adjusting the rod end bearings until I got it all right.
Built a mounting bracket for my Z-tron strobe tail light.
I cut down and shaped the fairing to have clearance over my tail wheel spring mount.
Epoxied the bracket on the fairing then mounted the fairing on the rudder.
Riveted the fairing in place.
Started working on the notorious empennage  fairing. Actually mine was the original Vans fairing and it wasn't to bad. First I mounted the lower aluminum fairing and riveted them on. I sanded and heated the fairing shaping it to fit closer. After about two days working on it I decided it was good enough.
I put a light behind the fairing and drilled and installed all the nut plates the plans called for. I ordered tinnerman washers to go with the #6 stainless screws.
I did not like the rudder stops that came with the project. I researched and built an internal rudder stop out of 1/2" thick nylon.
It looks nice and after several fittings I got exactly 1 1/8" clearance from the elevator with full deflection of the rudder in both directions.
 On to the fuel tanks. I installed the anti rotation brackets on the 3/8" bulkhead fittings. I also installed a fuel return line in each tank in case I ever needed them. I threw away the cork gaskets and prosealed the whole thing up.
This is the special tool I used to drill through the bulkheads to the last bay for the fuel return line. Being a farmer for 22 years comes in handy when you have to build a tool. I put grease on the bit and cleaned it often while drilling to keep the shavings down to a minimum.
I lost the pictures I took of my tank testing with my homemade manometer. The manometer was really easy to fabricate and worked really well. I connected a 1/2" vinyl  tubing to the fuel fitting and plugged everything off. I then put 32" of colored water into the "Manometer", 30"+- put 1 psi inside the tank. The tanks fluctuated a couple of inches during each 24 hr test and one tank leaked down at first but held good after I cleaned the fuel cap and lubricated it slightly. I also tested the tanks with soapy water.