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Mating Empenage to Fuselage

SonexGuy

Active Member
Hi,

I'll be starting my RV-7 empennage in May. I scratch built a Sonex in my basement, and was able to mate the empennage to the fuselage and still get the tail out the door (6' wide door) by turning the tail/fuselage 45 deg. The diagonal distance of the door was more than the distance across the horizontal stab.

My experience has been the longer I can keep the project at home (an in the basement), the more likely it is to get done in a reasonable time.

But the RV stab is longer and won't fit through that door (not possible to make it larger). So I'm wondering if it's possible to leave the mating of the empennage until very late in the process. Like getting the fuselage, canopy, and firewall forward nearly complete before moving it out of the basement and attaching the tail.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. And if anyone else did something similar, could you point me to their web page or blog, if one exists?

Thanks,
 
I'm nowhere near that yet, but if you have your preview plans it talks about this part in section 8. A skim reading says that the tail fitting comes after the wing fitting, so already I'm suspicious of your basement shop dimensions. The plans do feature the phrase "temporarily bolt". If you stop short of riveting the fairing I guess you could get things fitted up and still be able to disassemble for transport. In theory anyway. I don't know if it's practical.
 
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Bolts

The horizontal and vertical stabilizer are attached to the fuselage with a few bolts only, so it is easy to remove them after initial fitting, to be re-fit later on. They do not need to be in place to work on the canopy, FWF etc; only for setting the elevator control travel and making the linkages for the rudder pedals.
 
Mating the tail

It depends.

If you mean the HS, VS & Control Surfaces, no problem. They are bolted and easily removed. Most builders drill, fit then remove them till final assembly.

If you mean a length issue, the aft section has to be mated after the cabin floor section is assembled. Then the longerons and side skins are done. Finally, and most important, the aft deck is drilled and riveted. That's critical because once the aft deck is attached, the fuse is locked as a unit. That's when builders climb in and make airplane noises. :D
Then you get to the fun stuff. Canopy, Top Skins, FWF, Finishing, etc.
Maybe this will help...
http://wirejockrv7a.blogspot.com
 
Hi Mike - just saw this, and as a Sonex builder myself, I understand your concern because once those tails are on, they are pretty much on. As was pointed out above, that is not so with the RV’s - it takes about an hour (or two) to get a tail off and then another hour (or two) to get it back on, once it has been fitted.
 
Hi Mike - just saw this, and as a Sonex builder myself, I understand your concern because once those tails are on, they are pretty much on. As was pointed out above, that is not so with the RV’s - it takes about an hour (or two) to get a tail off and then another hour (or two) to get it back on, once it has been fitted.

Unless you drop the fancy spacers (machined out of aluminum for the center bearing support) down into the tail where they are impossible to reach. Yeah, then it takes a lot longer...haha
 
Hi Mike - just saw this, and as a Sonex builder myself, I understand your concern because once those tails are on, they are pretty much on. As was pointed out above, that is not so with the RV’s - it takes about an hour (or two) to get a tail off and then another hour (or two) to get it back on, once it has been fitted.

Very nice to know, thank you!
 
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