Like other builders I found the empennage mounting to be stressful. I followed Van's directions but decided to check if the horizontal stab itself was level in addition to checking the incidence angle and squaring it.  I found the left side to be 1/2" lower than the right requiring shims of .057" (.032" and .025" shims) to be added to the left F-810 shim under the forward spar.  When mounting the rear spar of the Vertical stab there is a bit of guess work because one can't see exactly where the WD-409 is behind the F-812 bulkhead. There was just enough material to give adequate edge distance on the WD-409 and the Rudder hinges.	I used a water level, carpenters level, the neighbor's laser level and a plumb bob to try to get things straight.  Too much information is not always a good thing.
The forward spar of the vertical stabilizer drilled to the horizontal stab front spar.  Notice the placement of the 1/8" shim. When installing the control surfaces I encountered two difficulties.  The first was drilling the holes where the control rod attaches to the elevator weldments. I should have drilled the first control rod hole per the drawing measurements.   Then, laid the elevators on the living room floor and clamped the weldments together using the AN4 hinge hole to align the weldments.  Finally drill the other control rod hole using the first hole as a guide.  Instead drilled both per drawing measurements and mine did not line up to well, about 1/16" off (solution pending....). Second I should have installed the rudder cables to the rudder before locating the rudder control stops.  Also one should wait to cut the angles on the stops until they are drilled and clecoed in place.  The third try and set of stops was the charm!	Centering the front spar of the vertical stab using a stick taped to the center of the firewall.  Strings extend to a straightedge taped to the back of the stab.  The farther I put the centerline reference from the stab the more easy and accurate the centering became.  I found the center of the turtle deck to be a poor reference for the centerline because deck is skewed to one side.
Holes through the F-850 and F-851 bottom skins were required to drill the outboard wear plate holes. The plan is to make the fiber glass fairing large enough to cover these.	I added simulated axles to measure toe-in while mounting the gear.  The tricky part of the gear mounting was getting the distance from the aft bulkhead, the four plumb lines and the toe in/toe out all to be acceptable at the same time.  Too many variables and only one equation, thus it had to be a compromise.
Joining the wing went very smoothly, everything lined up well and there were no conflicting measurements.  A fellow RV builder came over and we used his construction transit to level the fuselage and set the angle of incidence (pictured above).  The 2-51/64" block made me chuckle a bit because it reminded me of measuring with a micrometer and cutting with an ax.  We used perpendicular chalk lines on the ground measured to plumb bobs dropped from the leading edge to set the wing sweep.  This was checked by a string to a common point on the empennage from each wing tip.	Wingtip, Aileron, Flap and Root Fairings in place.
The F-863 Wing Tank to Fuselage Attach Bracket. The Slot  in the tank bracket was cut later.	The only big question (so far) came when attaching the F-863 (pictured to the left).  The top forward corner looks like it will interfere with the fairing.  I called Van's and they said to grind off the corner as long as edge distances are still met. Mounting the fairings ultimately required just a small amount of trimming of the F-863 for a good fit.
I spent lots of time trimming the top skin of the flap to get a nice fit to the fuselage only to find that it does not need to be exact because the fairing covers the area completely.  The flap to fuse fairing does take some tweaking for a good fit and I am still trying to figure out a good way to keep it from cutting into the flap itself.	Flap to Fuselage Fairing.