The missing time

I think that I had already mentioned we were a bit stuck on the center section and were awaiting plans. At that time work did not halt on the project, but continued on the tail group. So this again is an overview post of work completed in the past. With this post I think I had covered more or less everything completed on the aircraft to date.

The leading edge plywood on the horizontal stabilizer was showing rot and moisture, so we opened it up.

Torsion box of the stabilizor opened and rudder in the background. Does not look bad at all. At this point.

While half of the stabilizor was in excellent condition, the other half again showed signs of water present.

The left side was just destroyed. You can see the moisture and rot of the plywood.

Therefore the usual course was followed - just keep taking parts off, till we reach sound structure.

This is looking at the inside of the spar. Notice how accuratly the varnish is applied to the plywood.

 

This meant removing all the halfribs and the front plywood web of the spar.

Notice also the fact that the spar was repaired at least once. So this stabilator most probably took a birdstrike in the past.

So this was the state of the stabilator at the time we reached undamaged parts.

Next up was fabricating new parts to get everything back together.

Firs the web of the spar was added and new halfribs installed.

Then new skins were fabricated.

And scarfed in.

Not to bore you with details, this is the end product, and you can clearly see which are new skins.

Fortunatly the other tail surfaces had only minor damage compared to the horizontal stabilizor. Therefore the elevator was very quickly done.

We repaired only the nose section of the elevator.

The vertical stabilizor had even less work. Only some dents to take scraf patch in.

The following images show some of the fabric covering of the tail surfaces.

Covering the balance horn of the elevator.

Half of it covered.

Some intricate overlaps going on there.

Rib stiching the elevator is complete.

A detail from the horizontal stabilizer.

This is the rib stitching of the rudder. The stiches are only 3 cm apart - per original specifications.

And then everything dissapears under the covering tape - that is why it is called covering tape actually.

Great. Ready for fill coats of varnish.

Thanks for looking!