The empennage is done! Well, mostly. There's about an hour left on the stabilator fairing, and I'm saving the VS and rudder fairings and all the mounting hardware for final assembly, since the empennage won't fit in my garage assembled and needs to stay in pieces until it moves to a hangar toward the end.
Total combined empennage time: 167 hours. 74 for me, 93 for Shelby.
SEM primer for stragglers
Two pieces didn't make the big priming session: the rudder cable snap bushing brackets. Since they're just brackets, we cleaned and etched them and sprayed them with SEM self-etching green rattle-can primer. It's not the same as the EkoPoxy, but they're hidden away, nobody will ever see the color difference, and at least they're primed. We might do that for other single pieces that aren't worth mixing a whole batch of EkoPoxy for.
What's next
Time to make room in the garage and start on the wings! We have some plans over the next three weeks, so an earnest start might not come until early July. Then all of July and August are free to work on them.
We're also having our tech counselor over soon to look at our work and make him some dinner. Hopefully all goes well there.
More money to Vans
On the bittersweet front, Vans messaged today asking for the final deposit on the finishing kit. Just when I thought sending them $37k was enough, they want $16k more. The kits are going to pile up in the garage faster than we can assemble them. On the bright side, we get to visit Flightline Interiors soon and pick out all the special details. Now that the paint scheme is done, it should be easier to make everything match.
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