I got some good time in the shop this weekend with temps above 50. I fabricated & assembled the rudder R-917 shim and rudder horn,
Tapered the rudder horn to fit against the bottom rib,
And got some enthusiastic assistance from my lovely helpers!
I wrestled a bit with the counterbalance skin alignment even though the fluted ribs were dead-on, but ultimately using the "hedgehog" pattern brought everything in line.
After that, there was little to do but prime the skin stiffeners and rudder skins.
On Sunday I started back-riveting the rudder skins and almost immediately made 2 bonehead mistakes: the first was a mis-driven rivet, and the second (and more severe) was forgetting that the steel plate I was back-riveting on was only 16" long.
As you can see, the tip of the stiffener is a bit mangled, and there's a divot in the exterior of the skin.
Lesson learned: only tape in as many rivets as will fit on the backriveting plate. Or buy/build a larger plate. Following this, the second skin came out flawlessly.
I'm going to send these photos in to Van's technical support to see whether it merits replacement, but the skin is in good shape otherwise and there was no deep scratch or similar distortion. I decided to rivet all stiffeners on; if nothing else, it's good practice.
First complete back-riveted skin!
I got the skins clecoed to the sub-structure and match-drilled. Didn't complete the trailing-edge wedge, but that is a good place to start fresh.
Below are a couple more angles showing the trailing edge where I marred the right skin. It's far less noticeable from this angle.
A good weekend of building, a few new tricks learned, and a good-looking start to my first control surface! Plus some interludes to play soccer with the girls. A good start to spring.
Empennage: 5 hrs
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