Rudder

I went out to the garage this evening with the goal of getting the rudder done. It is done! Bending the skins over the rudder counterbalance ending up being simple enough to do. Measure three times then start bending. The… Read More »Rudder is Complete!

This step took longer than anticipated.. but I should expect that now. I had some extra 1 1/4″ PVC pipe from my paint booth project which I used to roll the rudder leading edge. I started out by myself and… Read More »Rudder Leading Edge Riveted

Half of the mental challenge of building an airplane is getting the courage to start on a challenging step, especially when you have so much time already invested in a part. The most recent case of this for me was… Read More »Rudder Trailing Edge Riveted

I made solid progress on the rudder today. Slow and steady tends to be more successful for me than hurrying up and having to redo things. I decided to proceed with the recommended 3M VHB tape method for the trailing… Read More »Rudder Closed Up

I spent several hours today finalizing all of the rudder parts to get them ready for riveting. The work I had left to do included deburring the holes in the skin, dimpling the skins, flanges, stiffeners, and ribs, countersinking the… Read More »Priming the Rudder Parts

I had a couple of hours to work on the rudder skins. I finished match drilling, deburring of the holes, and final deburring of the skin edges.

With all of the parts prepared for the rudder, I started and completed the initial assembly. Stiffeners, shear clips, reinforcement plates, and the rudder spar have been deburred and match drilled through page 7-6 Step 5. Next up is match… Read More »Rudder Initial Assembly