Empennage Construction

Mark's Mustang II Project Pages

Empennage Update (10/2006): How to prevent rudder and elevator cracking at the rib stiffeners.

Yes...I got a few cracks in my rudder and one in my left elevator after 130hours of flight. When installing the skin stiffeners use some proseal under the stiffener...and make sure the rib is close to the rudder/elevator spar. My cracks were near the spar, but others have gotten the cracks near the trailing edge. I think I did not get cracks there as I put the stiffener 0.375" near the trailing edge. I'm going to replace both of these skins asap.

Empennage almost completed...need to add rudder and elevators.

More empennage. note that the horizontal stab is built using the factory spar so a jig was not required. Just need to make sure that you don't put any twist into the skins. Was not very difficult to make...but took some time to rivet the forward horizontal stab spar because i was being very careful! Used AN426-AD3-3 rivets here very easy to buck... do not damage the skin, not easy to hide mistakes here!