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.