Brief Description: Rivet rudder and start riveting HS skins.
Riveted rudder components.
Riveted reinforcement plates and platenuts, bottom rib, rudder horn, shim and bottom top rib. Riveted horn brace in place. (Very tricky to get last two rivets in to squeeze. All thumbs.) Left out top most rib til later. Made sure right side skin had slight bend in front of rivet holes for rolled leading edge. Back riveted stiffners in the skins. (Only a couple had to be drilled out and repeated.) Counterbalance skin fits on the inside of the skins. Riveted the skins onto the frame making sure the counterbalance skins are inside. Made sure bottom attach strips were on the inside of the bottom rib. Trimmed the lead weight to fit counterweight. Installed top most rib. Used blind rivets to attach to spar. Riveted rudder trailing edge with instructor's help to make sure it was kept straight. We backriveted through the trailing edge wedge. We set about every 5th rivet half way going left and then right to keep things straight. We had numbered the holes left and right going to the same number back and forth. After setting half way, we check for straightness and found a slight bow. We then found a large steel angle to clamp to the back plate which was not straight. We then set the rivets fully on the straight steel anlgle which pulled out the bow. Thank goodness!
Charlotte and I started riveting the HS skins on the frame which was set in a jig. She riveted while I used the bucking bar. We did the "Big T" (HS-702 front spar and HS-708 main rib) on the top side skins. Starting at the intersection we went inboard then outboard then down the main rib.
