GeorgeJenson.com: Most everything about George Jenson

Airplane Builder - Empennage (Jan 06)

Main Page Empennage (Jan 06) Wings (Mar-Oct 06) Fuselage (Nov 06-?)

The Empennage is the tail section, or tail feathers, of the plane including the horizontal stabilizer (small wing in back), the elevators (control surfaces on the HS that make the plane pitch up or down), the vertical stabilizer (the fin in back), and the rudder (control surface on the VS that makes the plane yaw left or right).

In order to get started with some really deep training, and to get going quickly, I built the Empennage over a week in Eugene, Oregon at Synergy Air. You can read a review of that week here.

Decisions Before and During This Phase

Due to Wally Anderson's influence at Synergy, I decided to go straight to dimple on most prepunched 3/32 holes, skipping drill & debur. This is how he teaches and how I'll continue on for the rest of the plane. It is a controversial technique but I am confident in it.
Priming parts? Talk about the most debated topic in the RV community. Wally does is like Van does on the Quick Build kits and uses a Sherwin Williams was primer on all interior surfaces. This was fine at Synergy, but from this point on I'll use a simple rattle can, Sherwin Williams GBP988, only on mating parts everywhere else. I live in Tucson, AZ and this is perfectly reasonable in my estimation.
During the Empennage build, about the only other decision is whether I'll have manual or electric elevator trim. I went with electric and built the elevator trim tab accordingly.

Tips / Tricks / Things I Learned / Things I'd Do Differently Next Time

I would've brought my pneumatic squeezer to Synergy had I known better.
Riveting in a C-Frame really does make things easier - too bad I don't have a C-Frame. It was great while at Synergy.

Log

About five of us finished two empennages in four days. I didn't log the experience, but we did build in this order: rudder, then elevators, then vertical stabilizer, finally horizontal stabilizer.

It really helps when you spend NO time wondering what to do next.

All parts were edge prepped and primed first.