Do you prime fiberglass on rudder before covering?

[gizmos]

Do you paint or prime fiberglass on vert/rudder before you cover them?

[HighWing]

I never have,
Lowell

[gizmos]

Did you stiffen up around cut outs with more fiberglass? The rudder stop look very small surface area to stop rudder, did you add material to thicken stop so the rudder can not go past stop?

[Dave S]

Gizmos,

The polytac sticks just fine to the fiberglas faring....the only "priming" I did on the tailfeathers was for the bodyworking of the endcaps.....got some overspray on the fiberglass but that was incidental...not planned or needed...see attaches photos.

On your other question, no, didn't add any other material for reinforcements of the 'glass or stops.

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF7 Trigear Flying
912ULS Warp Drive
St Paul, MN

[gizmos]

Looks great! I think I will mold the bottom of my rudder like yours, looks nice. I would take a good look at the contact points on the stop, I put the kf7 elevator on my kf5. I would hate for my rudder to hit my elevator , could be bad in you are landing thanks for photos

[gizmos]

I added a servo for rudder trim

[gizmos]

Here is the cover, not finished yet

[Dave S]

Gizmos,

I like the idea of an electrically trimmable rudder.....I didn't put one in on assembly; found out what a few other builders have done; and, am in the middle of engineering a ground adjustable tab. Without rudder trim, I find I have to always hold slight right rudder in cruise....not a big deal but I really want to get a tab added.

On the rudder, I had to add a bit to the flat part of the stop because the swing was a bit too much as it came (Mine was an older model s7 kit) and did hit the elevator. My understanding is the 5 and 7 have the same fuselage frame.....the older S7s like mine had trim tabs on the elevator rather than electrically trimmable horizontal stabalizer....that explains some of the differences on the tail of our plane in the photo.

Since ours was intended to be a trigear....I did a thing that some will consider sacriledge:eek:....cut off the spring arms. Have attached a photo of what it ended up looking like.

Dave s
KF7 Trigear
912ULS Warp
St Paul, MN

[gizmos]

Your paint job looks Great! My kf is a nose dragged but I have made a few mods suggested by John kf. I am looking at the912 fuel injected, John doesn't have the firewall kit available yet. I just had double knee replacement 7 weeks ago and I did not work on my plane for 10 days, then I was back at my hangar. Dr said not to drive for 6 weeks, 10 days I drove to hangar, 2 1/2 weeks, I was back flying my RV-6a. I think I will sell my RV after my kf is finished. I was thinking about trading my RV for a new kf7. But the few I looked at was not very well built. I just finished a n-11 and almost finished a Fokker d8. ( d8 was started by someone else). I am selling the n11 to complete my kf. Here is a photo of my planes

[HighWing]

Gismos,
I'd be interested in the rudder trim report once flying. I have a Model IV and put electric rudder trim on it but a different style, but once trimmed, I haven't felt a need to trim during different phases of flight. Like Dave S. I just got tired of the constant right rudder and didn't want the external trim tab for some reason.
Lowell

[airlina]

I added a cockpit adjustable rudder trim on my Series 5 several years ago and at least on my airplane have found it a welcome necessity especially on cross country flights. I found my original ground adjustable tab to be insufficient , as the dynamics of how much rudder trim was needed seemed to change on every flight and I could not get the ground adjustable tab set for a centered ball to my satisfaction. The cockpit adjustable version cures this problem. Hobby shop supplied the high torque servo (mounted in the rudder like Gizmo did). Cost was about 150 bucks for the whole setup as I recall.Pictures of my setup are in the archives on this site. Bruce Lina N199CL

[gizmos]

Here is rudder modified before tab is reinstalled.