Assembling the Horizontal Stabilizer – Front Spar

Back to the priming table to shoot primer onto the rest of the horizontal stabilizer skeleton parts. The primer finish comes out really nicely! Not bad for a $16 paint sprayer. Several other builders have claimed that the cheap sprayer from Harbor Freight Tools works just fine for priming. I couldn't agree more. On to … Continue reading Assembling the Horizontal Stabilizer – Front Spar →

Assembling the Horizontal Stabilizer – Rear Spar

Now that some of the skeleton parts for the horizontal stabilizer have been primed and the primer has fully dried, it's finally time to start riveting the assembly together. This starts with the rear spar, consisting of a left and right spar channel, the top and bottom reinforcement bars that overlap the center of the … Continue reading Assembling the Horizontal Stabilizer – Rear Spar →

Priming the Horizontal Stabilizer Parts

In this work session, I finally got to shoot some primer with my downdraft table. I did a small batch of parts to get a feel for how the spray gun works and how much primer is needed for a particular set of parts. I started by mixing a small amount of primer base and … Continue reading Priming the Horizontal Stabilizer Parts →

Trimming the Horizontal Stabilizer Rear Spar

It's been over a week since I posted any updates on progress. I have been spending my time setting up my priming station as discussed in the last post. All I am waiting for now is the delivery of the primer itself, which I ordered from Aircraft Spruce. It was supposed to arrive two days … Continue reading Trimming the Horizontal Stabilizer Rear Spar →

Starting on the Vertical Stabilizer

I've set the horizontal stabilizer aside while I work on my priming table. I'll provide more detail about how I'm doing that in a later post. In order to keep making progress, I've begun work on the vertical stabilizer. Having done the work on the horizontal stabilizer, the learning curve on the vertical stabilizer is … Continue reading Starting on the Vertical Stabilizer →

Horizontal Stabilizer – Dimpling

The next task on the horizontal stabilizer is dimpling the rivet holes that are used to attach the skin to the substructure. A dimpled hole is bent inward with a precision die that causes the hole to exactly match a flush rivet head. When riveted, the surface of the skin is smooth with no rivet … Continue reading Horizontal Stabilizer – Dimpling →

Horizontal Stabilizer – Front Spar and Skins

The rear spar components have all been drilled. It's now time to assemble the front spar. This job is a bit more involved than the rear spar because the center section has a lot of stuff going on. There was a service bulletin back in 2014 (SB 14-01-31) for cracks that were forming in the … Continue reading Horizontal Stabilizer – Front Spar and Skins →

Horizontal Stabilizer – Rear Spar

The first major tail assembly is the horizontal stabilizer, and the first task in building the horizontal stabilizer is to assemble the rear spar. The rear spar is the strong internal structural component at the rear of the stabilizer that spans its entire width. It is built from two aluminum spar channels and reinforced with … Continue reading Horizontal Stabilizer – Rear Spar →

Getting Started

My RV-7 Empennage Kit arrived and I have begun the process of building the five major sub-assemblies that make up the empennage (tail). They are:The horizontal stabilizer;The left elevator, which includes the trim tab;The right elevator;The vertical stabilizer; andThe rudder.The kit arrived in two very tightly packed boxes. The larger of the two contained all … Continue reading Getting Started →