Tomorrow, the weather may allow a priming session. So I decided to do some prepping of the bulkheads i.e deburring and sanding.
I also corrected a small default on the bulkheads, the slots that will get the main fuselage longeron are too narrow so I filed them to correct size.

First work with composites on the projet and for me.
I first put some flox on the upper rudder tip.



I then riveted the rudder lower tip and "floxed" the gaps between skin and tip.



And to finish,I glued the rib and put some flox on the vertical stab tip. We'll see the results tomorrow.

I begun the day by some small work on the flaps: deburring of the hinges I drilled yesterday, riveting of some rivets that I missed during fabrication and installation of the bearing.

Today, I decided to install the trailing edge flaps. I thought this could not be done before the riveting of the lower skins, but it is easily done with the wings in the cradle. The operation is a little scary as the hinge does not leave much toom for play and it is better if the flaps are aligned with the ailerons. The method I choose has been well documented by Dan Checkoway on page 8 of this document: Flaps install. It seems a bit complicatd but is quite straightforward. First I riveted 8 small rivets to hold the skin and the flap brace once the clecos are removed. On the picture you can see the shophead of one of the rivets, behind the cleco. On the other side, the hinge will lie flat, as the rivethead is countersunk.



Then the flap is clamped on the wing, alignment and gap with the aileron are checked. I then drilled one hol out of three and installed some clecoes before drilling the other holes.



All is much easier with a helper, so Guillaume came to give a hand for the alignments and he did the drilling.



Once the drilling is finished, the small rivets get drilled out. After that the skins get lightly countersunk (manually with a deburring tool) to allow a small rivet to be inserted the other way round. On the picture, an idea of the end result once everyting gets riveted together.



Today, the work hour count reaches 500 after 11 months of work. I am very statisfied with the pace : empennage 90% complete, wings 85% complete and fuselage begun.

Today only small tasks, first I cleaned the workshop. Then I did some small adjustments on the tips. I wanted to begin the finishing process of the tips, but my epoxy resin didn't like being in the cold workshop and will only be usable tomorrow after small heating.
So, I decided to countersink the lateral part of the main bulkhead. As these parts will be under the fuselage side skins, some holes need to be countersunk. The rivets around the opening are not countersunk, they will be hidden by the wings.



To finish, I installed the ailerons on the wing, this will allow me to install the flaps. To insert the washers, I fabricated a small tool with some leftover aluminium.