01Dec17

     Rudder Assembly

The rudder skeleton with stiffiners cleko'd in place.

Added the rudder horn support at the bottom left

The stiffiners have all been cut to length and dimension and then cleko'd together to form the ribs of the rudder. The aft end of the left skin stiffener goes on top of the right skin stiffener but the forward end has to be placed underneath the spar attachment bracket. This was a step that I messed up during final assembly. During final assembly I failed to ensure that the left skin stiffener was under the forward spar attachment bracket. I had to drill out a dozen blind rivets to fix my error.

Finally getting the skins fitted! The Trailing Edge spacer gets taped in place with double sided tape.

Both skins cleko'd on for match drilling. Not all holes need to be match drilled.

Started attaching the skins for match drilling. The only holes that you match drill are the spar, top and bottom ribs. All of the stiffeners are already sized at the factory and you don't touch them as they are all back riveted.

Riveted stiffiners in place using the backplate riveting technique. It makes for a pretty easy riveting job!

Primer only in the locations where metal meets metal.

 Showing in these two photos what I have speaking to with regards to using primer. I am only applying primer to metal on metal contact points where I have broken through the protective cladding on the aluminum. Adding primer across the entire skin surface just adds unnecessary weight.

 

Rudder final assemply

The cleko's on the right are holding the trailing edge in place. The trailing edge spacer utilizes double sided tape on both sides to aid in sealing the trailing edge.

 I have nearly completed the rudder assembly. It actually went by fairly quickly. I think I probably have about 12 hours time at this point toward building the rudder. Probably the most difficult part is trying to blind rivet the two skins together. It requires a bit of finesse to attach the first stiffeners together and then work the skin up as you blind rivet each set of stiffeners.


Aside from that, I also learned, again, that it is imperritive to follow the instructions each step at a time and not assume that when it instructs you to rivet the skin to the spar, it does not mean that you can also start riveting everything else at that same moment. There are several steps that require you to rivet in a specific order to be able to have access to all the points that you need to be able to rivet what needs to be riveted.

 I am expecting to have this finished within the next five or six hours of work, at most. The final verdict will come when I see how the trailing edge ended up. That is a big test with the rudder and an area that many builders have issues getting right the first time.