I took the rudder to the EAA 1379 meeting this past Saturday and had Joe and Pat take a look at it. As I was loading it into the truck I noticed that it had a hook in it near the bottom at the trailing edge as though one side of the rudder was longer than the other or perhaps I had not straightened the flanges on the bottom rib enough. Pat and Joe took a look at it and said that I could 1-Go fly it, 2-Drill out the last five or so rivets and try again, or 3-Try to straighten it out by placing it on a flat surface and hitting it with a mallet with a plastic head. Option 2 could cause more damage than leaving it alone and option 1 might call for a rudder trim tab the size of Texas. Joe held the rudder and Pat supplied the force behind the hammer and it came out much better. They did say that the rivets looked good! :-) Joe also loaned me his trailing edge brake and a steel pipe to roll the leading edge of the rudder. The pipe that Joe loaned me is somewhat larger in diameter than a broomstick or some of the other objects I have read about in other build logs (sorry-didn't measure the pipe). I used "Gorilla Tape" to attach the pipe to the leading edge and it rolled extremely well. I clecoed the two sides together and thought, "This is much easier than I anticipated." I had a few small gaps that I thought I could do better so I removed the clecos and worked the edge. At this point it began to go downhill. Suffice it to say, I now have not only a greater number of gaps but they are larger as well. The more I tried to fix them, the worse they became. I finally riveted it together and will ask Pat or Joe to take a look at it when they have a chance. My $6 of platenuts and screws ($9 shipping) came in the other day. I used the NAS1097AD3-3.5 rivets to attach the platenuts as described in detail on the VAF forums. Works great. I primed the elevator stiffeners and skins and backriveted the stiffeners and trim access reinforcement plate to the skins. I then bent the trailing edge of the elevator.
