Sonex Tail Fairings

[rizzz]

I’m not quite happy with the look of my tail fairings. Not sure what it is, they just don’t seem produce a very “smooth” (for lack of a better work) look in that area. Perhaps it’s the sheet metal screws screws, not sure.
As you can see I slightly deviated from the plans as I do not have the front lip under the turtledeck skin. The first ones I made (this is the third set) were like that but I found that too look even more odd and it left a small gap between the VS and the skin/fairing.
Perhaps painting will make it all look better? (For those who have not followed my build, I started polishing but have since decided to paint instead, hence the polished tail and unpolished fuselage).

I do now understand why some go through the effort of making one big single piece fibreglass fairing, looks much better indeed.
Perhaps I might still do that at a later stage but for now I want to get to the flying stage first ;-)

Anyway, I’m not particularly looking for any advice or anything here, I think I have the fairings as good as I’ll ever get them, just wanted to share my findings:

[tonyr]

Hi Michael,

I think they look better fitted under the skin at the front, but that's just me

Did you anneal the aluminium before bending?
Makes it much easier to form the shape and get a proper fit .


Cheers
Tony

[gammaxy]

Looks great to me. Mine are fitted under the front skin. Any chance the contrast between the polished tail and unpolished fairing is making you think it looks worse than it really is?

[Sonex1517]

I bent mine over an aluminum softball bat. Came out nice too.


Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Tails and Wings complete - finishing fuselage.
N1517S reserved

[rizzz]

Hi Michael,

I think they look better fitted under the skin at the front, but that's just me

Yeah, that was not the case with mine, perhaps things fit a bit tighter in that area in your build..

Did you anneal the aluminium before bending?
Makes it much easier to form the shape and get a proper fit .

Sure did. Then bent them over a 2.5” pipe.
I was surprised at how soft the material becomes after annealing, the first set I made was a write-off straight away as I immediately over-bent one and got a kink in it.

Any chance the contrast between the polished tail and unpolished fairing is making you think it looks worse than it really is?

Probably.

I bent mine over an aluminum softball bat. Came out nice too.

I can see how that would be even better, not many people own a softball bat in Australia though…

Anyway, at some stage I might still do something like this:


Gotta admit, that looks really good!

[tonyr]

Dunno metal on metal.. just looks right.. lol

I didn't bother attaching at the front either..



Now for the fairing wars... *duck*

[rizzz]

That looks nice indeed.

[DCASonex]

Another option for those tail fairings.
Since these supply no structural strength, I formed mine out of 6061-T6 aluminum that was only 0.016" thick. Very easy to form, no annealing required, the curvature gives plenty of strength, looks great

David A.