Rudder Taking Shape

I got the rudder temporarily clecoed together. This is one of those deceptive stages of building. It looks almost complete but there's really a lot left to finish. From this stage, I will match drill all the holes. That means a lot of cleco moving. Then, I'll disassemble everything and deburr all the holes. Next, all the external holes and the corresponding understructure gets dimpled. Then comes edge finishing, scuffing, cleaning and priming. Oh, and don't forget fitting the lead counterweight and epoxying the trailing edge wedge and rolling the leading edge. All that before riveting. But...it does look like an airplane part for now!

Rudder Riveting Party

Everyone wanted to get in on the rudder riveting party today. First, my Dad and his friend Irene came by for lunch and a look-see at the airplane. They both did a little riveting. I had the camera set up so I got a little stealth video of my Dad riveting. Then Shelby came home to pick up Hadley (named after Hemingway's wife that loved cats) the cat. She tried her hand at a little riveting and did great. Then Paula tried it and did great also. Thanks for all the help finishing up riveting the stiffeners to the rudder skins!

Drilling the Rudder Stiffeners

Here's a little video of me drilling the rudder stiffeners. One of my neighbors told me the pneumatic drill sounds like I'm torturing cats. The other sound is my too small compressor kicking in. If it looks like I'm drilling into the workbench, you're right! The instructions actually recommend that you drill and cleco right to the workbench to keep everything flat.

Trimming the Rudder Stiffeners

Here's one of the rudder stiffeners all trimmed and sanded and smoothed. The rule of thumb for how smooth edges need to be is if there's no chance of getting a cut from the edge, it's good to go. The stationary belt sander and scotchbright wheel make it fast and easy to do.

Here are the scraps left from trimming the stiffeners. I took a picture of the pile because I thought it looked interesting. I once took a picture of a slimy green rock in the headwaters of our local river and framed it and entered it in the county fair. It looked like art to me. I can't help it if no one else can see art like I do, including the county fair judges!

Plans for the Rudder

Here is the page from the plans for the rudder. The rudder has a lot of stiffeners instead of a skeleton structure of ribs and spars. There are also parts fabricated from raw stock, leading edge rolling and lead counterweights. Something new.

Stored the Vertical Stabilizer, Rudder Next

With the Vertical Stabilizer finished, it's time to move to the rudder. Here's Austin helping begin the rudder by drawing a robot on the box the rudder skins are in. He's so funny!

Here's the Vertical Stabilizer stored on the ceiling of the garage next to the Horizontal Stabilizer. I like having the parts displayed as an extra motivator and reminder for the next step.

Finished the Vertical Stabilizer

I finished the Vertical Stabilizer today. Another small milestone. There are 4 basic parts to building the empennage. This is the 2nd sub assembly I've completed.

Avery Hand Squeezer

I received the Avery Hand Squeezer today. I also got a standard 3" yoke (it's the one in the squeezer below) and a 4" thin nose, no-hole yoke with it. I've already used it and REALLY like it, much better than the Tatco squeezer. The no-hole yoke makes it very easy to get into those hard to access places.

Finishing the Vertical Stabilizer

I'm almost done with the Vertical Stabilizer but I'm stuck on the rivets that are adjacent to the spar doubler. Everyone on vansairforce.net said you've got to have a narrow head no-hole yoke for your squeezer and this picture shows why. I've ordered one from Avery Tools and it should be in Wednesday.

Vertical Stabilizer Ready to Rivet Skin

Here's the Vertical Stabilizer ready to rivet the skin. It doesn't look much different from a previous post showing the VS skinned but a surprising amount of work goes into getting it ready to rivet on skins. You've got to match drill, deburr, dimple, clean, scuff, re-clean, prime and rivet the skeleton before you get to this stage.



Here's a picture of the inside of the VS that will be closed off after the main spar is riveted. This is another of those places where a lot of care goes into getting it right but no one will ever be able to see it except with pictures like these.

Riveting Vertical Stabilizer Spar

Here's the setup I used to rivet the main spar of the Vertical Stabilizer. The spar has a thick stiffener so it takes a bigger rivet. Part of the fun of building is "McGyvering" a tool to get the job done. It may be hard to see, but I've shimmed and taped spacers to my C-Frame to get the spar at the right height to use the rivet gun on the AN4704-7 rivets.

Primed Vertical Stabilizer Skeleton

I got all the ribs and spars for the Vertical Stabilizer primed. I've been using the shipping box the empennage came in as my paint booth.

Skinned the Vertical Stabilizer

I got the skin on the Vertical Stabilizer. Preparing the skeleton went fast as it is very similar to the Horizontal Stabilizer. Next, I'll match drill the skin to the spars and ribs before removing the skin to deburr, dimple, prime, reinstall and finally rivet.

Rib Flange squaring tool

Here's a nifty little shop made tool for squaring the flanges of ribs. It's cut with a 10 degree undercut to allow for spring back. I can't claim the design as I saw similar ones on several other RV builder's websites. Some used 14 degrees of under cut which was too much when I tested it.

I used an old hinge which is sorta' loose which seems best as it allows for a little flex when needed. I also found I needed to always have some blue painters tape on the parts that touch the rib to prevent scuffing.

Vertical Stabilizer Plans Page

Here's the page from the plans for the Vertical Stabilizer. Not as complicated as the Horizontal Stabilizer.