EMPENNAGE FINAL MOUNT & RIG - AUGUST, 2009
Aug 5 - The last time I worked on the tail was September, 2003. Six years! It's such a terrible shame that I've wasted over 4 years on the horrible Eggenfellner disaster. Hauled out all the dusty empennage parts and the Van's plans I haven't looked at in years. Found the right places in the manual and in the plans. Started searching for the mount hardware and small parts like the F-798 shims that I haven't seen for six years. 2.0 hr
Aug 6 - can't find any of the hardware at the hangar; hope it's in the garage when I get home this weekend.
Aug 10 - I found my F-798 shims and other completed plane parts in the garage, but no sign of a labeled container with the bolts I used to mount everything on the tail. Seems doubtful I'd have put them all back into their general hardware containers, but apparently I did. Started mounting the Horizontal Stabilizer. 0.5 hr
Aug 12 - working on mounting the tail. It took awhile to get used to using the prints. I haven't looked at them for about 4 years, ever since I started down the Eggenfellner Road To Hell. Posted a question about some details on VAF. Got the HS & VS mounted & started in on elevators & rudder. I spent a bunch of time redoing the elevator up travel & stops. When it came time to install the bolt and washers for the elevator horns pivot bearing, I realized it was going to be impossible to diddle those washers into place with the VS in the way. I guess that's why the Van's manual says to install the HS, then the elevators, then the VS. RTFM! So I removed the "final-installed" VS and began trying to find the right combination of washers to get zero clearance between the bearing and the elevator horns. The LT side was perfect with the large washer & 3 AN960-416 regular washers. But I just couldn't get the RT side right. 6.5 hr
Aug 13 - Finally got the RT side done by using one of those special rod end safety washers I got from The Chassis Shop when I was making my supercharger belt tension adjuster rod, 1 regular washer, and a third "washer" I made from a piece of 0.006" shim stock I had laying around. It's also impossible to get a socket or regular wrench onto the bolt head or nut enough to make any movement for this. Fortunately, I had a set of "tight clearance" wrenches that let me get the job done. Unfortunately, after I tightened up the nut, I found out that, although Van's plans had specified an AN4-14A bolt for this, it actually needs an AN4-15A bolt, which I do not have. So I took it all apart and ordered $50 worth of bolts, including the AN4-15A I need, from ACS. In the end, rather than wait days to continue the job, I just used one of four AN4-15 bolts I have, and added a few AN4-15s to my ACS order, in case those four I had are for something else on the plane. The bolt is in shear, not tension, so no way could that cotter hole make a difference in strength. Finished installing elevators. Noted that pilot's stick is hitting the switches panel, so I worked on cutting down the stick and installing the Infinity Aerospace grip. 3.5 hr
Here's the hardware I used on the elevator horn bearing mount. LT side
is a large washer next to the bearing & 3 regular washers. RT
side is a special rod end safety washer, one regular washer, and a drilled
piece of shim stock to eliminate remaining play between washers.
This is the only kind of wrench (RT end) that will get onto the elevator
horn bearing nut enough to leave you any room to swing the wrench. You
can get regular open-end wrenches onto the bolt and nut, but you can't move
them at all. There's no side clearance for any sort of box-end
wrench or socket.
Aug 14 - reinstalled VS, start installing rudder. Both the top of the rudder and the RT end of the HS had to first be cleaned and reprimed, due to the 6 years of fly poop all over them. Lots of cobwebs and dead bugs to blow out of the tail parts, too.
Aug 17 - final-adjusted rudder rod end bearings, installed rudder, final-adjusted rudder travel, connected rudder cables. Connecting the front end of the rudder cables will require the F-6119 rudder cable links, which I don't think I've made yet, as they need to be fabricated to a custom length, depending on final rudder pedal position. They're to be made of steel, but I'm not sure now where that steel stock might be. 2.5 hr
Aug 18 - Queried VAF about whether or not I could substitute 0.063" or 0.125" aluminum for the 0.050" steel in making the F-6119 link. Consensus was NO. I did, however, get a description of what the piece of steel stock should look like. I went home and found the steel stock in the bottom of the pile of aluminum stock in the garage. All rusty by now, of course. Wired brushed it clean. 1.0 hr
Aug 19 - Cleaned and primed steel stock for the F-6119s. Fabricated four F-6119 rudder cable links. Primed them, but unfortunately I used RUSTY metal primer, which is fine, but it takes forever to dry, so I left them hanging overnight & will install tomorrow. 1.5 hr
Aug 20 - I left the F-6119s out in the 90 degree sun all day. By evening, the paint was plenty dry & hard. Installed them, learning a couple valuable tips in the process:
1. It's MUCH easier if you do this before you do all your avionics and wiring, so you can work from the top down, instead of doing the contortionist thing from under the panel.
2. It's MUCH easier if you put the two F-6119s and hardware onto the pedal first, then the cable, rather than the other way around. This is because a washer goes on each side of the pedal bracket, between the bracket and each F-6119; not too easy if the brackets are already mounted to the cable when you're stuffed under the panel. 0.5 hr
The tail is installed for now, so I started working on the brake lines. See the August Fuselage page for details on that.
Aug 26 - trying to put cotter pins into the F-6119 clevis bolts. The problem is that the bolts are a tad too short, and I can't expose enough of the cotter pin hole to get a cotter pin in. After wasting a bunch of time trying to do it, I placed another ACS order for both longer bolts and thinner nuts. One or the other should solve that problem. 0.5 hr
Aug 31 - got my ACS order. Between a combination of the thinner nuts from the order and using thinner L washers, I got the cotter pins in and finished the F-6119s. 1.0 hr
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