Tail Fairing Fitting.

[Pushboy]

I’ve been working on the fibreglass tail fairing.

So I’ve got it installed, and it’s flush at each rib location, however it bows out slightly between each rib.

I’m wondering if anyone else has had this — and if there is a solution, or if the fabric will pull that bow down?

I kinda guessed at the location of the fairing when installing it. I couldn’t find any registration marks on it like on the rudder. Prior to installing the ribs I tested both the bottom and top rib in the fairing and marked where they “best fit.” This seemed pretty good when cutting the holes and slot… most of the excess fairing was at the bottom, only about 2” over hang at the top. Obviously if I did it again I’d move the fairing down even more… but it’s a bit late for that now…

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dave.


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[Brandon Petersen]

Hi Dave!

The fabric will pull the fairing in where is flares out between ribs. It looks a whole lot better than having them concave between the ribs.

Happy building!
B


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[Pushboy]

Here I was thinking… “I’ll give the factory a break from all my newbie questions, and post on the forum…”
And then Brandon chimes in!!

Thank you very much — very good to know. Most bays have between 1/16- and 1/16+ one has about 1/8 bow out. Hopefully that’s within the tolerance.
The good thing is they are all fairly consistent. My grandpa used to tell me that repetitive mistakes trump one off errors as they often look intentional. He would have really liked this project.

It will be interesting for me to see how powerful the fabric pull is— I’ve never done fabric work before.

Thanks again for all the help!

Dave.


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[patrick.hvac]

Hey Dave,

While you're working on the tail section pre-cover, I would strongly recommend putting in some nut plates on the aluminum angle that holds the horizontal close-outs.
They are known to strip out with the little screws and makes for a pain later.

[jiott]

I used Tinnerman nuts on that angle, as well as on the welded-on tabs. Quicker and easier.

[Pushboy]

Awesome — thanks for the tip.

I was already thinking about something like that - also for the floorboards, just wasn’t sure what route to go. I’m such a newbie builder that learning all the names of all the types of fasteners, the sizing and what their best usage/weak points are takes me a lot of time…


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[alexM]

Tinnerman nuts seem cheezy but they are really a great invention. When you do eventually strip one out you just remove it and slide a new one on. No need to keep increasing the screw sizes to make up for stripped out sheet metal.

[jiott]

Tinnerman nuts are harder than the screw, they are spring steel, so I doubt you would ever strip one out. Screw would probably lose it's threads first.
The other thing I like about them is they give some self-centering ability, unlike nutplates or rivnuts.