The rudder turned out to be the most challenging assembly so far. I know it will bet much more difficult, but the rudder was tough for a couple of different reasons. First, the rudder skin is only .016" thickness. That is ridiculously thin. The only real trouble area was the trailing edge. What a pain. Second; the rudder trailing edge: I am SERIOUSLY considering a different technique for the rudder trailing edge. IMHO, the van's approach is flawed. I will talk about that later...
Anywhoo....I will tell the story in how it was assembled. Honestly, this part is great engineering. First, you build the rudder spar. this was fairly easy, you add a couple of doubler plates, and rivet on some nut plates. The rib at the top houses the counterbalance weight. I was rather surprised how soon that rib was added to the spar, but it made sense later. I alodined the parts I could fit in my "dip buckets".
The counterbalance rib was where I made a small mistake. I will illustrate that more later...
Better shots of the rudder horn, and the doublers. Note that I like to label the parts. It makes it easier for me to keep this stuff straight. Once you see the instructions, you will see why this makes sense. Well, to me anyways. I found that making some makeshift clamping devices, makes things so much easier. This is what I built. You might find something more efficient, but this worked for me!
Gratuitous diet coke shot here... The mistake is apparent in the counterbalance rib in this pic, but I will discuss later...
Eventually, the instructions lead you to this skeleton. You cleco it all together and match drill everything. You rivet the rudder horn at this time. Not gonna lie, I was kinda nervous riveting that assembly (the rudder horn...). It's very thick. But it all worked out.
Once completed... (check out those sweet-ass new balance tennies!!) Pay no mind to the rivet on the left hand side of the nutplate. On the back side of the rudder horn, that rivet holds a zip-tie anchor that will eventually hold a nav-light wire?
As we progress.... The plans have you cleco the skins and the stiffeners to the assembly. Next, you match drill till you are blue in the face. On the serious, I am super proficient at drilling a hole, while holding a pair of cleco pliers, and a drill, in the same hand.... (trust me, it makes sense when you see it in person....
So, this is where things got slightly interesting. This little "R910" part, just didn't fit correctly. It took quite a bit of massaging to make it fit right. You can force parts into position with cleco's, but they will be a pain in the ass to rivet later when the clecos are removed. Initially, I thought the 910 was causing some of the "oil-canning" of the skins, while it was all cleco'd up. So I massaged it all into place so it fit right. The devil is in the details. I have found so far it is fits without forcing, your life gets a lot easier....
This was the gap I was trying to eliminate... (Between the vertical part on the right, and the horizontal 910 piece...)
The gap between the rudder horn (on the right) and the 910 piece. Eventually I just use a pair of seaming pliers to bend it all into position, and it helped. I'm glad I did this, because riveting this all together was really tough a little bit later...
To be continued.......
