1.7 Hours -
Last night, I left the rudder assembled, but not final drilled. Drilling the remaining holes took about 30 minutes.
Next, I returned to the rudder brace and trimmed away a portion of the flange per the plans. To do this, I did a rough cut with snips (I hate snips) and then did a final cut with the Dremel. I went ahead and finished the edges on this piece as well since I want to smooth out the cuts before I attempted assembly.
The rudder brace after trimming per plans.
The rudder brace slipped into position on the rudder horn/bottom rib easily. All the horn and rib attachment holes were final drilled to #30. The brace did not have pre-punched holes for attachment to the skin, so I match drilled those using the skin as a guide.
The rudder brace attached to the rudder.
Finally, I fabricated two bottom attachment strips (R-918) out of 0.032” thick alclad. These were pretty simple to make, and, as usual, Van’s gives you a very clear drawing. The strips needed to be 18” long by 1-1/8” wide with one end have a slight taper to accommodate the rudder brace.
Reinforcement strips are fabricated and attached to the bottom of the rudder. The bottom tip will eventually attach to these.
Attaching the strips was also simple. the non-tapered end is aligned with the end of the bottom rib and the entire strip is clamped into place against the rib flange. The strips are then match drilled using the skin as a guide for the hole locations.
Bottom tip attachment strips match drilled to the rudder.
Initial rudder assembly is complete. Now, the fun part starts. With all the parts in the rudder, it will probably take me 2 or 3 days to disassemble, deburr and dimple everything. I won’t be able to completely finish the rudder until I get a piece of aluminum angle I have on order from onlinemetals.com. I also need to order some pro-seal from Van’s for gluing the trailing edge.
