Well after some consternation about doing the rudder skin after messing up the first one.....I was able to successfully complete the riveting of the stiffners to the rudder skin.....whew!! I fabricated the 2x8 brake to bend the rudder skin to properly fit the rudder spar. I bent the rudder with the brake and only after consulting my RV builder friend Jim to be sure that I had the bending process straight in my head....his coaching really helped and I achieved a successful rudder bend!!! Thanks....again...Jim.
I placed a dab of RTV at the trailing edge of each stiffner. Vans says this is to act as a vibration dampner so as to keep the stiffners from moving and cause cracks to develop over the years. It seems to work really well as I could feel the difference after the RTV dried.
I moved on to preparing the rudder spar for assembly by drilling & dimpling the lead counterweight. I went on to rivet the spar hinge reinforcements R-607/608/606 PP to rudder spar. to the spar along with the rudder hinge nuts that will be used to attach the hinge bolts. A good work session!
