Not much visual progress in the last few days. I’ve been troubleshooting problems with my 4″ thin-nose yoke, which either because of the yoke or my lack of technique caused a bunch of slanted rivets when attaching the right rudder skin to the spar. A bunch of ’em needed to be drilled out – ugh. I also found out the hard way how much damage a rivet gun can do to 0.016″ skins – don’t ask. Definitely a low point in the project so far. Solutions? I ordered a 3″ regular yoke from Avery to get some of those harder-to-reach rivets that don’t require the 4″ no-hole yoke. In general, a shorter yoke is better – less deflection. Also talked with Cleaveland Tools and the gentleman who rebuilt my squeezer, both in an attempt to figure out what’s going on.

Whits’ autograph

We asked Whits to sign one of the rudder skins before starting the close-out process.

Rudder counterweight assembled

Next step – riveting the counterbalance skin and main rudder skins together. Here’s everything fitted together prior to riveting the top rib in place.

Bottom rudder frame

Started riveting the rudder frame together tonight…the frame goes together pretty easily. Van’s calls out optional LP4-4 blind rivets to attach the rudder brace and control horn. I wouldn’t know how to buck solid rivets here, or even squeeze them unless there’s some way to get a longeron yoke in there. Perhaps it’s possible to change the construction order and rivet the brace and horn together first. Whatever…

A fuzzy rudder counterweight

I also riveted the counterweight skin to its lower rib and then to the spar. That was enough for one day!

More carcinogenic primer

Despite a cold day (4C/40F) the primer went on well. I found some instructions on the web for my cheapo Harbor Freight HVLP spray gun, and they helped quite a bit.

Mmmm…primer!

And here are the rest of the primed parts. It’s time to rivet!

Touch-n-Prep pens rock!

Got the remaining rudder parts prepped and alodined tonight. Now it’s time to mix up some more primer…ugh.

After a brief interruption for a wedding (Ellen’s and mine!), it was back to the rudder. This weekend’s tasks were to countersink the trailing edge wedge, prepare a piece of angle stock to hold the trailing edge straight, and finally, debur and dimple the skins.

Countersinking the rudder wedge

The first step in countersinking the TE wedge was drilling the holes to final size. I borrowed a technique for this from my friend Jim Piavis, match-drilling and clecoing the wedge to a flat surface – in this case, the hollow-core door I use as a work surface. Match-drilling into the door leaves a nice, accurate hole for the coutersink pilot. That, in turn, helps keep the countersink from chattering and chewing up the hole.

Dave’s pudgy hand. Note the wedding ring!

Here’s the end result. The process worked, and the wedge looks good. Another test-fit of the skins and wedge was encouraging. Next step – match drilling one rudder skin to a piece of aluminum angle per Vans’ instructions. I fastened the angle to one edge of the work surface for some added stability. Once assembled and prosealed, the trailing edge will be held straight when clecoed to the angle.

Drilling the wedge

The end result will look something like this…except with both rudder skins clecoed to the angle.

The wedge of doom

Rudder clecoed together

Lots of progress in the last three days. Got the rudder clecoed together, then trimmed and fitted the R710 rudder brace that goes between the rudder horn and the lower rib. The brace has holes punched in it to indicate where material should be trimmed away for fitting, but the plans don’t say explicity to cut to the centerline of these holes as when trimming stiffeners. I cut and trimmed to the hole centers, and found that I was a little short on edge distance when match-drilling to the rib sides. I called Van’s – again – and they said that due to the loading on this part, a little reduction in edge distance would be ok.

Rudder trailing edge clecoed together

I clecoed the AEX wedge in place to get a rough estimate of how well things are fitting together. It’s not perfect, but it’s straight enough to give me some confidence that the trailing edge will go together during final assembly. After this check, I match-drilled the skins. Then came fabrication and fitting of the 0.032″ strips that will hold the lower rudder cap. Finally, I disassembled everything and began deburring/edge finishing rudder parts.

The Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 10-3 to take the American League pennant! We’ve been staying up late the last few nights watching this incredible series, so nothing was done on the RV.

The Sox celebrate after beating the Yankees.

The next step is preparing the counterweight ribs and fitting them to the counterweight skin and spar.

Counterweight skin fitted to spar

I had to spend an entire evening trying to get this skin fitted correctly. I eventually found out that the skin wasn’t bent correctly at the factory and while I was able to get the skin fitted, the incorrect bends made the leading edge of the counterweight slightly skewed. Van’s says it’s ok, and I decided to use the skin as-is. The skin can be easily checked for a correct bend by simply setting it down on a flat surface with the skin sides vertical. If the skin’s bottom edges sit flat against the surface, it’s probably ok.

With the skins done for now, it’s time to build the rudder frame. First step is to fabricate a small 0.032″ spacer that fits between the rudder horn and spar.

Rudder horn clecoed to the rear spar

The plans are a little confusing on this step; a detail drawing on plans page 7 seems to indicate that the holes on this spacer should be drilled in assembly with the rudder horn and spar. But there is a plans step that covers this match-drilling later in the construction procedure, so it pays to read all the way through and entire procedure. Then read it again…and again. Also, a fair amount of filing and finishing is required to allow the rudder horn to fit snugly inside the lower rib’s forward flange. The plans say to do this “if required”. Trust me, it’ll be required. In general, this portion of the plans and instructions are not very well written. A lot of re-reading and visualization are required. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but a little more work by Van’s to add just a few clarifying words would really help. Van’s, if you’re reading this, I’d be glad to help.

Rudder frame clecoed together

The frame is clecoed together here. One other thing that’s unclear in the instructions is when to match-drill the rudder spar reinforcement plates. I did it when match-drilling the skins, but it should be done before the skins are clecoed on. It’s possible to hit a stiffener with the drill bit when match-drilling those reinforcement planes. Ask me how I know this…