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Tailcone & empennage attachment done!

SabreFlyr

Well Known Member
Sponsor
Had hoped to be at this point about three months ago but at least I DID get here!

Now, what is it that's got me thinking "ship in a bottle?" :rolleyes:
 

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A great milestone. Great, because people no longer ask: "what's that you're building in your garage?"
 
That’s a fun milestone, for sure. I didn’t do the final tweaking on my tail feathers until the plane was on landing gear, and even then I had to remove them to get it out of the basement door and up to the garage for propeller installation. The separation was almost a year ago. I moved everything to the hangar about 3 weeks ago and finally got the last of them final installed with lock nuts and torque seal last night. It’s never looked more like an airplane than it does now. :)

This view is probably a big reason why I did the fuselage and finishing kits before the wings. Imagine what you have now, except attached to a forward fuselage and standing on its own wheels. It was too much to resist, so I did the wing kit last.

A couple of tips if/when you remove the tail feathers:

1. Put the hardware with your normal collection, not in a special “this is for the empennage attachment” collection. I have gone absolutely nuts wondering how I lost 7 AN3-10A’s in the past year, and I was about ready to jump off a bridge trying to find the AN23-11’s to attach the rudder cables to the rudder, until I realized I had actually put them on the rudder to avoid losing them. Keeping everything in my usual hardware storage system would have been better.

2. Put something over your tail feathers to keep dust off. I kept them in a safe corner of the basement for the past year. Now, the right side of my rudder is extremely dusty, while the left side is pristine and shiny.
 
It's starting to look like an airplane! I see you're bringing some nice woodworking skills to the project - your fuselage cradle is first-rate.
 
1. Put the hardware with your normal collection, not in a special “this is for the empennage attachment” collection. I have gone absolutely nuts wondering how I lost 7 AN3-10A’s in the past year, and I was about ready to jump off a bridge trying to find the AN23-11’s to attach the rudder cables to the rudder, until I realized I had actually put them on the rudder to avoid losing them. Keeping everything in my usual hardware storage system would have been better.

That SO sounds like something I have done too many times in the past (not just in this project). It's about time I learn that lesson! 😊

It's starting to look like an airplane! I see you're bringing some nice woodworking skills to the project - your fuselage cradle is first-rate.

Actually, I kinda felt it was rather cobbled together. 😊 Thanks!
 
Even though I did mine in fiberglass, attaching the tail to the fuselage is very stressful. I HAS to be perfect. Congratulations!
 
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