Rudder Fiberglass Part II
Since I’ve had some extra time waiting for additional kits to arrive, I decided to get started on the fiberglass on the empennage. I am planning on integrating all of the lighting on the airplane into the wing tips so that there are no lights on the tail. The stock rudder fiberglass fairing has a provision for a nav light on the tip, but since I won’t be using it, I wanted to smooth it out. Maybe it will get me like .1 knots.
I traced the outline of the “bump” and the cut it out with a Dremel. I cleaned up the cut a little bit and then carefully taped vacuum bag around the OML of the part around the cut. Then I layed up two plies of fiberglass on the inside of the part against the vac bag. After it cured, I filled in the gaps between the glass and existing part with micro and sanded it all down until I was happy with the shape. Then, I sprayed some primer on to see how it looked. I did the micro/primer step 3 times until I was happy with it and then called it good for now.
Next step was to fit the forward end of the tip. This one is a little tricky because it needs to fit around the rudder horn. Vans recommends cutting a big square out of the fairing and then just sliding the fairing on from the bottom. Instead, I’m trying to cut a slot so the fairing can slide on from the rear. This should leave a little more fiberglass material attached and ultimately look a little cleaner. I’ve read that there can be some interference issues with the tail spring once it’s fit up on the fuselage, so to mitigate some of that risk now, I am raising up the front end of the fairing about 1/2″ so I don’t have to deal with it later. Thinking I may not fully rivet it either right now, incase I need to take off more later.
