Rebel Tail Tips Revisited

[Terry Dazey]

Hello Ken, Jesse and All:

In reference to a previous April 2005 post concerning tail tip fit:

I am installing an aftermarket tail tip on the vertical tail. When I set th
e
fiberglass tip over the tail, the leading edge of the tip is about 3/8

[Ken]

Hi Terry

Yes I was referring to cutting the trailing edge and sliding the tip
forward as you describe. The one that I saw done that way only needed
about a 1/4" and there was no need to get involved with any resin or
epoxy. It looked just fine with the leading edge matched and the
trailing edge of the tip very close to the trailing edge of the rudder.

I needed almost a half inch and built up the front with that shredded
glass filled polyester resin used for car body repair, and then a bit of
body filler. It was still a lot less work and a better result than the
factory tips and I consoled myself thinking that the ounce of extra
weight was in the right place for dynamic balancing ;)

If I did it again I'd probably slit the trailing edge and fit it and
then decide whether it was worth any additional fibreglass work. I guess
we almost have to get involved with a little fibreglass work anyway for
the windshield and it isn't all that bad once you get into it...

Ken

Terry Dazey wrote:

Hello Ken, Jesse and All:

In reference to a previous April 2005 post concerning tail tip fit:

I am installing an aftermarket tail tip on the vertical tail. When I set

th

e
fiberglass tip over the tail, the leading edge of the tip is about 3/8

[Jesse Jenks]

Terry,
I did it the way Ken describes, with no additional glass at the T.E. and I
think it looks good with the T.E. a straight line up the rudder i.e. no
joggle at the tip. I did have to sand quite a bit of extra resin/glass out
of the inside of the T.E. to get it to slide on without interference. I did
also build up the leading edge a bit with thickened epoxy. When I was still
in the head scratching stage I figured If I was going to be getting into
epoxy work why not make the tips all composite with no aluminum rib. That is
what I ended up doing, and I'm happy with the way they turned out, but it
added hours of sanding. You would probably be able to whip them right out,
since I believe you built a Long EZ right? With the elevator tips I had the
opposite problem; they were about 1/2" too long. I guess you could just cut
off more width and let the L.E. curve shorten it back, but I didn't want to
loose surface area forward of the hinge line, so I sawed off about 1/2" of
the trailing edge, then rebuilt it with a piece of wood epoxyed in to fill
the gap, then 2 layers of 4 oz glass wrapped around the outside. I used the
same method as the rudder tip here even though it wasn't necessary(kept TE
of tip flush with TE of elevator). I made the tip ribs from 1/4" ply. they
extend about 6 inches aft of the hinge line, and have an oval shaped hole to
clear the hinge bolts. I epoxyed them in, sanded a radius in the existing
glass, then wrapped 2 layers of 4 oz glass around and 3/4" onto the outside
of the tip. I also put a glass reinforcement flat patch of 2 layers of 6 oz
cloth on the top and bottom of the elevator tips only, in the area of the
extended hinge line because it seemed vulnerable to cracking there. The
plywood rib made mounting the counterweights very easy, and they are
completely invisible; I drilled 3 oversized holes in the rib, and filled
them with thickened epoxyed and put a layer of 6 oz glass over them on the
backside (this was all done prior to gluing the ribs into the tips). I then
drilled and countersunk the epoxy for 8-32 cs bolts, and bolted/epoxyd the
weights in place and epoxyed over the heads of the cs bolts. Everywhere I
put new glass onto the outside of the tips I sanded off all the gel coat in
that area to get a good bond to the existing glass. I faired everything
back in nicely with thickened epoxy. The tips are in primer now, and you
can't tell they went through major surgery. I finished the installation with
five 8-32 nut plates on each flange in existing rivet locations, and cs
stainless screws with cs washers in the tips. It makes a nice installation,
but extra work and cost. I had to use 1 leg nutplates to fit between the
flutes in the flanges.
Jesse

From: Ken <klehman@albedo.net>
Reply-To: <rebel-builders@dcsol.com>
To: rebel-builders@dcsol.com
Subject: Re: Rebel Tail Tips Revisited
Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 10:18:20 -0400

Hi Terry

Yes I was referring to cutting the trailing edge and sliding the tip
forward as you describe. The one that I saw done that way only needed
about a 1/4" and there was no need to get involved with any resin or
epoxy. It looked just fine with the leading edge matched and the
trailing edge of the tip very close to the trailing edge of the rudder.

I needed almost a half inch and built up the front with that shredded
glass filled polyester resin used for car body repair, and then a bit of
body filler. It was still a lot less work and a better result than the
factory tips and I consoled myself thinking that the ounce of extra
weight was in the right place for dynamic balancing ;)

If I did it again I'd probably slit the trailing edge and fit it and
then decide whether it was worth any additional fibreglass work. I guess
we almost have to get involved with a little fibreglass work anyway for
the windshield and it isn't all that bad once you get into it...

Ken

Terry Dazey wrote:

Hello Ken, Jesse and All:

In reference to a previous April 2005 post concerning tail tip fit:

I am installing an aftermarket tail tip on the vertical tail. When I set

th

e
fiberglass tip over the tail, the leading edge of the tip is about 3/8

[Terry Dazey]

Thanks Jesse and Ken! Great food for thought on the tips. I think that I am
going to make the T.E. flush with the rudder. I will 5 minute epoxy some
medium density, waterproof foam to the L.E. and contour to fill the 3/8 gap.
I then will layup 4 plys of cloth at the L.E. Once cured, I will flip the
tip over and make flox corners and layup 2 plys to seal the foam from the
elements. Scuff and a bit of micro to fill the weave and imperfections then
paint. Of course, this will all be accomplished after the ribs, etc. are
installed.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions and detailed descriptions!

Over-and-out . . .
Terry Dazey
Rebel 662

I did it the way Ken describes, with no additional glass at the T.E. and I
think it looks good with the T.E. a straight line up the rudder i.e. no
joggle at the tip. I did have to sand quite a bit of extra resin/glass out
of the inside of the T.E. to get it to slide on without interference. I did
also build up the leading edge a bit with thickened epoxy. When I was still

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