Scheduled a visit with EAA Tech Counselor Dennis McCright this evening to have him review my rudder assembly. His comments were as follows:
"Work on the vert. stab. rudder very nice. Advised to roll form the leading skin so as to fit without having to be pulled into place."
He was suggesting that I add some extra bend to the nose skin so that it would fit the spar without having excessive preloading. I was able to get a few extra degrees of form but after creating a small crease I decided to leave it alone.
Other suggestions were: 1) Add a slight bend on the nose skin edges with a seam tool to force them to sit flat after riveting, 2) form the front of the nose rib a little more so it doesn't interfere so tighlty with the nose skin and 3) fill two "mistake" holes by countersinking them and installing rivets flush with a flat puller tip. This will allow the bearing half to sit flat without having to remove much - if any - material from the back of the bearing to clear the rivet.
8/14/11 update: Dennis was killed in a crash of his RV-6. See my 8/14/11 post.
