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Showing posts from June, 2017

Rudder completed for now!

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I've riveted the two skins on as much as I can for now until inspection, and made sure it fits with the VS well enough. It's a very quick test, but all looks well. I was especially curious about the spacing between the rudder and the VS up top, where the VOR antenna screws are. I may also add grounding screws for the lighting around there ... lots of room! Satisfying day :)

Rudder skin fit test

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All parts are deburred and primed and riveted together. My plans completely omit the installation of one part, so I nearly forgot to put in ... luckily it connects with the skin, so I quickly noticed the empty holes! Here is the result: Despite the slightly malformed parts, looks like everything should it nicely! I guess the fluting helped!

Rudder Prep Work

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Deburred all the rudder frame parts (i.e. all but the skins), and then primed. I consistently find parts with small "issues", which is getting tiresome. Today there was this rather thick rib with no curved bends that wasn't straight: Really seems like that shouldn't be, since there's no curvature, it should've remained flat through the manufacturing process ... looks like it was abnormally bent somehow. I did some fluting to it, hopefully that'll work out OK. And then a piece that again has some abnormal bends into it: (Note the right side in the picture, not straight at all). I tried the seamer to no avail ... I also clamped it down with a block, didn't change much ... Hopefully I'll manage to get it fitting OK.

Done VS for now, starting the rudder

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OK, I riveted the one side of the VS, and put it away for now: And pulled out the rudder bits and removed the plastic film: