KitLog pro

Powered By Kitlog Pro v2.0

Kupe's Zodiac 650B
' style=
Date:  1-20-2013
Number of Hours:  4.00
Manual Reference:  6-T-5
Brief Description:  Rudder Tail Skin Assembled

Spent the morning drilling and cleco fastening the rear and front rudder skins. The rear skin was a straightforward effort: Line up the skin, line up the ribs by reaching into the skeleton from underneath, and drill/cleco-fasten a couple hundred holes.

The biggest challenge today was the tip rib: that white plastic teardrop shape that sitsat the top of the rudder. It comes with the big flanges on it. I was unsure how to proceed with cleaning off the flanges until I figured out that my heavy-duty, titanium scissors were up to the task. I was able to trim about 95% of the flanges off using the scissors. I removed the remaining portions with a file and smoothed and straightened the edges using finer and finer files. Looking back on it, a pair of tin snips might have worked too.

The hole next to the spar on the right-hand side of Rib #2 that didn't "feel" right when I drilled it. I left it alone until disassembly where I found the flange had bent down when I was drilling instead of letting the drill bit bite into it. I straightened out the flange and drilled the hole in it using a wood block to support the flange and everything's good now.
' style=

The rear rudder skin was pretty easy to set up and drill.

The rear rudder skin was pretty easy to set up and drill.

' style=

The nose skin is quite a challenge.  You'll need 4-6 hands if you don't use duct tape!

The nose skin is quite a challenge. You'll need 4-6 hands if you don't use duct tape!

' style=










Copyright © 2001-2024 Matronics. All Rights Reserved.