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I was going to try and mount the tail surfaces and paint it all in place, minus the control surfaces...and immediately after bolting down the horizontal stab, realized a flaw in my plan. The vertical stabilizer is installed after the elevator is rigged to the HS. Oops.

So tonight, I decided to go back to my original plan, paint these surfaces all separate, and off the fuselage. Time to make a few rigging stands. Some scrap wood, screws, and Bob's your Uncle.





Now for you aspiring painters out there, if you are spraying a metallic or pearl paint, you would want to have the horizontal stabilizer "horizontal" and not vertical as I have it. It's important to paint items in the orientation it will finally be when it's done.

I am using a solid red, no flake or pearl...so final orientation is not important. Also bought materials today to make a mini paint booth

Looks good! My aspiring painter days seem to have passed me though.

I actually made a new parts last night / tonight! Before I get to paint the elevator, I needed to install the elevator trim tab. I've flown in a Waiex with the Dial-a-trim and personally didn't like the feel and reaction of the set-up, so since I'm building a Sonex, and have a choice mine was to follow the plans and build the traditional trim tab.



Unfortunately last night when I was looking for material, all I could find was 0.025" aluminum sheet. Must have used up all of the 0.032" which this part is to be made from.

So I made it from 0.025", which was to flexible. Fortunately I have materials for fiberglass...So I roughed up the back side of this part with sand paper, and cut a layer of cloth to match the trim tab and embedded it with polyester resin. Sweet! Trimmed and sanded the whole assembly tonight and finished riveting the hinge halves to the trim tab and the elevator.



These two parts will get primer, then I can apply my red single stage urethane paint to everything this weekend...and reassemble the tail one last time!

The tail is now permanently mounted, and both control surfaces attached as well. I started running the cable housing for the trim tab, and also ran the rudder cables. Having some trouble getting all of the cable fairlead snap rings in place. Had to stop tonight as my fingers were sore and my patience running low...

Looks great Scott! I love that color red. Anytime you want to paint my whole airplane, feel free :mrgreen:

Looks great Scott!

It's been a few weeks since I have worked on the airplane. Had two business trips for work, and threw in a bathroom remodel that we got done last Weekend.

Next up is finishing the controls. This week I completed the rudder mounting blocks, and the rudder pedals are installed...today we rig the controls for this.

The rudder pedals are now connected to the cable and rudder! The flap drive tube, flap handle, detent bracket and the trim lever are all connected now.



Had to take it for a test flight!

Sweet! I just finished my rudder pedals, dual stick, and flap handle also. Did not get the obligatory photos yet.

Looks great Scott! I think Scott and Robbie are almost at the same point or at least very close in progress. Looks like the race is on! :mrgreen: