Normally, after the V-Stab, the rudder and the Anti-Servo Tab is the next item on the list to complete. I'll be going out of sequence in a little while.. more on that to follow..
I started work on the rudder.
Here is what we're trying to build here:
After the V-Stab, the rudder should be a piece of cake. Its smaller.. one spar with with 4 ribs on one side, a couple doubler plates and a hinge on the other. Well.. I screwed up.
Here's how its supposed to look. The spar's flange is towards us.. and this is the side with the hinge. The opposite side is the side where the ribs are. In this guy's photo, you see the upper hinge mounted on two doubler plates, mounted onto the spar.
I wish I had taken photos of my mistake, but I was too frustrated and just wanted to fix it. I put two ribs on -this- side of the spar. I drilled out 8 pop rivets and put the ribs on the correct side. Not a big deal really.
Then.. I realized that I had put all those rivets in (as shown above), and forgot to put the rib on. See that center line of rivets between the two hinges? Those are what hold on the rib on the opposite side. This is a bigger problem. I had to remove one hinge (4 rivets), then remove the 4 error rivets. Then I realized I didn't have enough clearance to squeeze on 4 new rivets (and the rib), so the other hinge had to be removed. 12 rivets total.
In the process, I mangled some holes:
I mailed Van's and I expect they'll tell me to re-drill these holes and use a wider rivet. If this we're an E-AB airplane, I'd just go ahead and do it, but since it's an E-LSA, I'd like to get their OK on it. So long story short, the rudder is on HOLD.
I started work on the rudder.
Here is what we're trying to build here:
--insert graphic here--
After the V-Stab, the rudder should be a piece of cake. Its smaller.. one spar with with 4 ribs on one side, a couple doubler plates and a hinge on the other. Well.. I screwed up.
Here's how its supposed to look. The spar's flange is towards us.. and this is the side with the hinge. The opposite side is the side where the ribs are. In this guy's photo, you see the upper hinge mounted on two doubler plates, mounted onto the spar.
I wish I had taken photos of my mistake, but I was too frustrated and just wanted to fix it. I put two ribs on -this- side of the spar. I drilled out 8 pop rivets and put the ribs on the correct side. Not a big deal really.
Then.. I realized that I had put all those rivets in (as shown above), and forgot to put the rib on. See that center line of rivets between the two hinges? Those are what hold on the rib on the opposite side. This is a bigger problem. I had to remove one hinge (4 rivets), then remove the 4 error rivets. Then I realized I didn't have enough clearance to squeeze on 4 new rivets (and the rib), so the other hinge had to be removed. 12 rivets total.
In the process, I mangled some holes:
I mailed Van's and I expect they'll tell me to re-drill these holes and use a wider rivet. If this we're an E-AB airplane, I'd just go ahead and do it, but since it's an E-LSA, I'd like to get their OK on it. So long story short, the rudder is on HOLD.
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