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Removable fairings

AviatorJ

Well Known Member
On to section 12- I wanted to make the bottom rudder fairing removable for light access as well as the top VS fairing for a possible camera at some point.

Is the best way to do this is mount K1000-6 nut plates on the fairing with 426ad3-3 or 3.5 rivets and screw it in with the stainless #6 screws? Thanks!
 
I believe that a number of people have done exactly what you're suggesting, and I considered it myself.

In the end, I permanently attached the rudder bottom fairing, and with just a little extra slack in the tail light wires, I can remove and install the light very simply. If anything, it would take quite a bit more time if I had to remove all the fairing screws instead of just the two screws that hold the tail light itself on.

If you're going to do anything more fancy that a position/strobe light, it might be worth it to make it removable...
 
I did the nutplate and screw thing, after the bottom fairing got crushed when the plane sat on its tail when two people stepped up on the plane at the same time.

Good idea as far as I am concerned.

Be careful how you load passengers.......
 
On to section 12- I wanted to make the bottom rudder fairing removable for light access as well as the top VS fairing for a possible camera at some point.

Is the best way to do this is mount K1000-6 nut plates on the fairing with 426ad3-3 or 3.5 rivets and screw it in with the stainless #6 screws? Thanks!


That's excatly what I did for the bottom fairing. I glassed in the upper fairings. My nav antenna is mounted on the bottom and did foresee any need to get back into the area on top.
 
There was someone out there (some years ago now) selling a kit with nutplates, soft rivets and #4 stainless screws - I believe it was intended for RV4 wingtips. Works really well and looks awesome - plenty of left over materials but the whole thing wasn't expensive.

Can't imagine why one would fit the bottom fairing permanently......
 
I believe that a number of people have done exactly what you're suggesting, and I considered it myself.

In the end, I permanently attached the rudder bottom fairing, and with just a little extra slack in the tail light wires, I can remove and install the light very simply. If anything, it would take quite a bit more time if I had to remove all the fairing screws instead of just the two screws that hold the tail light itself on.

If you're going to do anything more fancy that a position/strobe light, it might be worth it to make it removable...

I did exactly this. I can unscrew the bolts and pull the wire out long enough to swap out the strobe if needed.
 
My guess is that you'll spend more time messing with nutplates than you would drilling out and replacing the blind rivets for the one or two times that you'll need to do that for the rest of the plane's life.
 
My guess is that you'll spend more time messing with nutplates than you would drilling out and replacing the blind rivets for the one or two times that you'll need to do that for the rest of the plane's life.

Maybe... but I'm spending more time building a plane than buying one already built, so time isn't really that sensitive on this project.

I went ahead and ordered the plates and #6 screws. Will probably get to actually doing it in a few weeks.
 
I believe that a number of people have done exactly what you're suggesting, and I considered it myself.

In the end, I permanently attached the rudder bottom fairing, and with just a little extra slack in the tail light wires, I can remove and install the light very simply. If anything, it would take quite a bit more time if I had to remove all the fairing screws instead of just the two screws that hold the tail light itself on.

If you're going to do anything more fancy that a position/strobe light, it might be worth it to make it removable...

The day you go out and see that a bird is building or has built a nest in there you may wish you had screws. Of course, the plane that came in with the nest was riveted on and filled and painted, so I had to do some searching for the rivets to drill them. Also, the wires were corroded through so they had to be cut and spliced.
 
I'm installing ALL my fiberglass tips with #6 stainless screws and nutplates. I think #4 are way too small for this purpose.

I agree for the wing tips and have done everything else as per plans. There is no load on the bottom rudder fairing, it works fine and looks more in proportion. There is also the issue of keeping the weight down for control balance purposes.

But each to their own - point is, it really needs to be removable.
 
Here's the final result on the bottom fairing-

IMG_1886.jpg


It didn't really take all that much extra time, maybe 30 mins? After I was done went ahead and screwed it all on, worked like a champ.
 
Did you use K1000-06 nutplates or does one need to use K1100-06?
I'm assuming a countersunk screw is used so the skin is dimpled, and thus the fiberglass is countersunk so wouldn't the nutplates need to be countersunk as well which would put you to a K1100?
 
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