[ The Frye RV-7 Project ] Friday, March 29, 2024  
 

 

Empennage Construction


 
The empennage is the first of the kits, and everyone starts there. It is the smallest (and least expensive) of all the kits from Van's and gives the builder a chance to "test drive" the whole construction process before spending too much money. It also is good training for the construction techniques which will be used on the rest of the aircraft.

The empennage is built in four different major sections. The horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer, elevators, and rudder. The construction of each of these will be documented in this section of the web site.


Sub-section(s) :  Horizontal Stabilizer    Vertical Stabilizer    Rudder    Elevator  

Empennage Ordered
The empennage order went in this afternoon. I elected to NOT have a light on the rudder, and did elect to have the electric elevator trim. Now all I have to do is wait a week or so and two big boxes should show up on my doorstep. This means it is time to re-read (again!) the empennage construction section of my preview plans.

Empennage Shipped
The empennage order went out the door on the 4th, and is slated (if the UPS tracking web site is telling the truth) to arrive on Wednesday, September 12. Step one will be to unpack and inventory the kit.

Empennage Kit Arrives
The empennage kit arrived today at 10:30am. The boxes look in good shape and I'll be starting the inventory today. I took pictures of the boxes (a bit silly, admittedly) which will go here once I get them developed and uploaded. In a fit of good timing, the Pre-Punched Empennage Construction Video arrived from the Orndorff's earlier in the day. I'll be watching them very soon now.

Started Horizontal Stabilizer
It is the day after I got the empennage kit in, and I have started the Horizontal Stabilizer. For details on my progress take a look at the Horizontal Stabilizer construction logbook.

Started Vertical Stabilizer
Today I started the Vertical Stabilizer, and not because I was finished with the Horizontal Stabilizer, either. The HS has been my "classroom" and as such I have made a number of mistakes. At the moment I'm off for the Thanksgiving week, and while I wait on replacement parts for the HS I refuse to sit and twiddle my thumbs. So .... I have started on the VS and it is off to a -fantastic- start. For details on my progress take a look at the Vertical Stabilizer construction logbook.

Finished Vertical Stabilizer
Finally, the Vertical Stabilizer is complete (except for the fiberglass work, which I'm leaving all to the end of the empennage construction). Work, life, illness, and travel have all played their part in dragging this construction activity out. At the same time it has been a world of fun, and I learned a lot (and feel a lot more confident) now that I have completed a part. Now to take what I learned on the Vertical and apply it to finishing up the Horizontal Stabilizer. :)

Why it is so slow. :)
Most of why this has gone so slow is that I find it hard to carve out time to spend in the shop. Work, kids, and my "real life" (and my own sense of my various other obligations) conspire to keep me from working. Add to that the fact that all this is very new to me, and there are the various mistakes that come from me mounting the learning curve and you get more calendar time taken. Finally, I got the "not quite totally pre-punched empennage" kit. The skins and rear spar were pre-punched, but nothing else. That has meant I have had to work harder at alignment and construction (though, nothing like those who came before me with NO pre-punching at all!). That has translated into mistakes, and re-ordered parts.

That being said, the actual shop time is not that great meaning my mistakes are not any worse than anyone else's. The real challenge is getting into the shop. I just saw a reproduction of a Fokker DR.1 Triplane at our local EAA meeting. The guy scratch-built it from plans. Admittedly he was/is an A&P, but the big take-away from what he had to say was that he put in one or two hours every night, and built the thing in two years and ten months! AMAZING! It was beautiful work too.

I've renewed my commitment to try and get out there and work an hour or two every day. I won't succeed at that, but I can keep trying. One final interesting thing to note is that I felt awful today. I was dragging at work, tired, achy, and feeling generally under the weather. I came home and because my son was so ready to go work on the plane ... I figured I could stand to do some dimpling. After two hours of working, finishing the dimpling and getting it all clecoed together, I felt a little soreness in my back, but my headache was gone and I generally felt better than I had all day.

I think I like building airplanes. :)

Empennage Finished
I realize that the dates here look very funny. Let me explain. I had started on my rudder right at the time when Van's announced that they wanted to change the rudder design. I stopped rudder work, and just pressed on with other things.

Time passed, and finally my rudder arrived. It was no problem because I was not nearly at the point where I needed to have it completed, so I just put it on the shelf. Time passed. A lot of time passed. Finally I was getting close to needing to have it ready so I could put the tailfeathers on the plane .. and I got it out of the box and built it. Today I finished it .. and therefore technically today is the day that the empennage is finished. What fun. :)

 

 


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