1.5 Hours -
There seems to be many more parts for the rudder than for either the horizontal or vertical stabilizers. I’m trying my best not to confuse myself by remembering to read ahead in the plans. While the first step may seem confusing, the next six steps usually clear it up!
First, I revisited the rudder horn/lower rib assembly. The rudder horn was not fitting flush inside the flange of the lower rib.
The rudder horn would not fit inside the flange of the lower rib.
I took everything apart and rounded the upper edge of the rudder horn using a vixen file and Scotch-Brite wheel. Once the radius was in place, the rudder horn fit nicely into the rib flange and everything could be easily clamped together. Because the rudder horn is still touching the rib webbing, I will probably remove a little more material during final finishing before assembly. This way, they won’t be rubbing together and wearing each other down over time.
After putting a radius on the top edge of the rudder horn, it fit nicely in the radius of the lower rib flange.
The rudder horn assembly as seen from the top.
Next, I clecoed on the three spar reinforcement plates (R-606PP, 607PP and 608PP) and final drilled everything to size.
The tip rib (R-903) and the counterbalance rib (R-912) were next to go on. Each of these attach with only two holes. Once they were fluted, they were simple to situate and final drill. However, I made a small mistake by not finishing the edges on these two ribs prior to fluting. It won’t be an issue, just a bit of a pain to work around the flutes.
The tip rib and counterweight rib clecoed to the rudder spar.
The rudder has a third skin called the counterbalance skin (R-913). This skin is U-shaped and wraps around the tip and counterbalance ribs. It also overlaps slightly with the main skins. While small, this skin was the hardest piece yet to cleco into place. Because of its shape, it was a challenge to get all the holes to line up. Eventually, I removed the counterweight rib, clecoed the skin to the tip rib, replace the counterweight rib, and finessed all the pieces until I could place the clecoes. With the skin finally on, all the holes were final drilled to #40. After all this work, I realized it is easier to cleco on the forward end of the skin to the ribs and then move to the sides. What can I say…It’s a learning process!
The counterbalance skin was a pain to fit!
With the skeleton assembled, I clecoed on the main rudder skins and fit/clecoed the rudder trailing edge wedge (R-916). Hey, this thing looks like a rudder and the trailing edge is nice and straight so far!
The left rudder skin clecoed on.
The rudder clecoed together. The trailing edge looks nice and straight for now!
The obligatory picture down the trailing edge.
Finally, I dug out the R-710 rudder brace from the box-o-parts. This piece needs to be trimmed down, and, as usual, Van’s notched the part and gave me a detailed drawing to show where the cuts should be made. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do this one with the band saw, so my Dremel will be the second choice (I don’t like metal snips since they seem to bend the metal). I didn’t feel like doing this tonight, so I simply marked part with Sharpie to indicate where the cuts will be made and called it a night.
Sections of the rudder brace must be removed. I'll probably use my Dremel for this.
