Thursday December 7, 2006
Rudder (Rudder)
1.5 Hours

I haven't been totally useless since last Tuesday, although it may seem that way. I spent a good bit of Sunday insulating the garage door and fastening a big sheet of plastic over it. It's much warmer in the shop now, although it gets down to the low 50's when it's below freezing outside.

I spent a while the other evening mucking with the trailing edge of the rudder in preparation for riveting. I clecoed the wedge in between the skins and took note of bulges and poor fit. About a quarter of the countersinks weren't deep enough and were pushing the skin out. I don't want a wavey trailing edge, so I took it apart and used the hole-deburring tool to cut those countersinks a bit deeper. The fit is better now, but not perfect. I'll spend some additional time on this before I proceed.

Van recommends that, in order to get a straight trailing edge, you drill and cleco the trailing edge assembly to a straight piece of scrap aluminum angle. I cut my 8 foot angle down to the length of the trailing edge and filed and smoothed the ends.

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