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Keiths Web Site
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Date: 7-22-2010
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Number of Hours: 5.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Fixing the rudder interference
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Another long day. Getting towards the end now. This step marks 1500 hours on the build, somewhat longer than even I had anticipated.
I discovered that the rudder was rubbing on the rivets holding the nutplates on the tail fin cap. This was a G-RMPS mod, so I only have myself to blame for the design shortcoming.
I spent ages grinding down the offending rivet, and the screws without resolution to the problem. Eventually I attacked the nutplates with a vengeance. I ground off the rear leg on both sides. That did the trick. The nutplates are now free to swivel around, which isn't very satisfactory. However, it is good enough to allow me to permanently attach the tail. The proper solution will be to replace the nutplates with one-legged-one, having two rivets on one side of the threaded hole. I later confessed to Tim who was happy with the proposed solution. Indeed he offered to provide the nutplates...I'll now have to plead with the painter to patch up the scratched area.
I wanted to fix the tail permanently to the fuselage so that the painter could paint the fuselage, and add the trim lines to the tail without having to remove/replace the tail. The problem was the small area of the tailcone underneath the fin/rudder which was unpainted. I therefore prepped, primed, and painted this area with Halfords aerosols. It won't be seen, so was really just for corrosion protection.
I then permanently (I hope) bolted on the tail fin and rudder combo, and temporarily reattached the tailcone fairing for painting.
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