The vertical tail took quite literally all day. I cut separate left/right pieces.
The first half went reasonably well. It wasn't hard, just a lot of bolts to go around near the trailing edge in particular. The cutout for the control linkage was a particularly challenging area. I ended up making a grommet using a piece of thin metal roof flashing.
The flashing was bonded onto the skin and then a larger patch put on top. Perhaps the slit could have been shorter, which I'll know after a full reassembly. With the long slit cut, the grommet deformed a bit relieving the tension in the aft portion of the covering. Meh, it'll be okay.
After an evening of covering the second side, I got to the point of match drilling the new tail bracket to fit the tail on. It's now fixed in place and fully remounted. The controls have been re-rigged as well, and they work fine. It's weird having the skins attached. Just different.
To another day...
1 comment:
Hi Dan, I really like grommet you made out of metal flashing. I noticed you mentioned it deformed slightly under tension with the fabric though. I am thinking of doing the same thing, but I wonder if you heat shrunk the fabric before installing the grommet?
Thanks
Kevin Kat
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