Dec 23, 2020     Rudder Trailing Edge Build - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

I wasn't pleased with the rudder trailing edge. While they're straight, the skins between the rivet 'pooched' out more than I liked giving the rudder an ugly look. The majority of this I think is due to the failure of the 3M tape to hold the pieces tightly together. As much as I don't like Proseal I decided to take the adhesive and force it between the skins and trailing edge piece. I also took an aluminum angle laid it over the top and bottom edge and clamped the skins together. So far, it looks okay and if it holds the skins together it'll be a success, If it doesn't work, I guess I'll go with plan C, JB Weld:-) Just kidding, or am I?

  Dec 18, 2020     Elevator Trim Tab - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

With the new pushrod now ready for installation, I lined up the trim motor end with the trim tab end. Getting the pushrod onto the trim motor and the parts installed wasn't as easy as it looked. Getting the clevis and washer thru the hole in the motor tab wasn't bad, but getting the washer and the clevis pin on the other end wasn't very easy. There is a minimum amount of space available for the pin. After 3 or 4 tries and 2 butchered pins, I finally got one on. The trim tab end worked out fine per the instructions. I bent the pins in place and secured the area.

  Dec 17, 2020     Elevator Trim Tab - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

The new pushrod from Van's arrived this afternoon. (The old pushrod was too short) I took the three pieces, double flush riveted them together filed it smooth, primed it and began the installation onto the trim motor. I also connected the control wires to the motor. I'll complete the installation tomorrow.

  Dec 16, 2020     Rudder Leading - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Rolling the rudder leading edge will complete the first phase of the rudder build. The edge of the left skin was bent or broken to insure a good fit. Then using a 1 inch diameter steel pipe, we inserted the pipe between the 2 skins, taped it in place, with, you guessed it, duct tape and rolled the upper third of the lower or right skin. Then we did the same to the next two segments. We then flipped the rudder over and rolled the upper or left skin. Once in place we tweaked each section so they would easily cleco together and lie flat against each with no gaps. We checked them with the plans template. We removed the clecos one by one and replaced them with rivets. Turned out picture perfect.

  Dec 15, 2020     Rudder Trailing Edge Build - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The trailing edge of the rudder has a strip of 3M adhesive under and over the wedge on the trailing edge. One strip of adhesive is placed on the wedge and then on to the rudder. This is then clecoed while the adhesive cures. After curing, the paper protecting the remaining side is pulled off. Simple in theory. But what if the adhesive and paper backing won't separate? That was dilemma. I tried slipping in a new strip of adhesive. No joy. The distance between the left and right skins was too narrow and the strip caught on the dimples. My fallback was to remove the strip of tape and use Proseal. Yuk! Messy! Nasty! But, just before I did that, I tried another way. I cut two strips of the tape the length of the rudder, placed the adhesive side of each them together and used the clean paper backing sides to slip between the wedge and the skin. Then I pulled off both backing stripes. That did it. After that I began the double flush riveting. The rivets set nicely (per the instructions) but I don't think I did that great of a job, however, I'm not going to build a new rudder. I give it an 8 out of 10. The riveting was made a little more challenging by the edge bend being in the way. The rivets are solid and set nicely but, the skin looks a little beat up. It's only cosmetic and can be covered up, but I think I could have done better. Next time! I also made leading edge templates for the necessary bends of the leading edge.

  Dec 14, 2020     Rudder Build - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Completed the rudder skin to spar riveting and installed and riveted the top rib in place. Attempted to begin the trailing edge riveting but ran into a problem removing the backing of the trailing edge tape. I'll probably resort to Proseal rather than try to insert a new strip of tape into the edge. Three friends also tried to remove the backing, but to no avail. Oh well.

  Dec 13, 2020     Rudder Build - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The rudder counterbalance was installed and the right skin was riveted to the spar.

  Dec 11, 2020     Rudder Build - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The horn installation was completed however, since the rudder was partially built by a previous owner, I did not take into account that the famous four holes I so dutifully riveted, now covered three of the blind rivets that needed to be set. These rivets secured the 'upper and lower' rib to make in essence a single rib. Now I got to use one of my better skills to drill out a lot of rivets. That's not a skill to really be proud of, but it is useful. The horn was drilled out and the 3 'hidden' rivets were set, as were all the other ones drilled out to make this reinstallation possible. Finally, the counter weight rib was riveted to both left and right skins,

  Dec 10, 2020     Rudder Build - (1.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

The spar assembly was riveted to the stiffener flanges and the left attach bracket was riveted to the bottom rib and skin. The horn assembly riveting was started by setting the four rivet holes on the bottom rib that were left unfilled through the build process.

  Dec 09, 2020     Rudder Build - (5.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The morning was spent removing the lower right rib and attach strip and moving the attach strip over the rib, then re-riveting the assembly. The build then continued as the right rudder had the shear clips riveted to the stiffeners. The trailing edge had the super tape applied to right skin trailing edge. The trailing edge wedge was placed over the tape. The left skin was then placed top of the right skin. To build the rudder, starting at the bottom and working up, the stiffeners were riveted together at the intersection where each stiffener meets. About in the middle of the rudder. The forward portion of the left stiffeners received two rivets. The intersection rivets were a bear to do. The skin had to be pulled up at every intersection to get the blind fastener installed. Not much room was left to get your hand in there and actually squeeze. It took a lot of reserve (ok, unused) muscle power and grunting to get that LP4-3 blind rivet seated. As we moved up the rudder each stiffener, in sequence, got a little easier. We were relieved that when it was done It looked darn good. The spar framework was then inserted into the rudder and clecoed in place. Finally, I clecoed the trailing edge in place so the adhesive tape could cure.

  Dec 08, 2020     Rudder Build - (3.0 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

Today the right skin was dimpled and the previously completed stiffeners were riveted on. The spar framework was clecoed to the left and right skin. All the necessary holes were match drilled to the framework as well as to the holes on the aft edge, the counterweight and top ribs.

  Dec 07, 2020     Rudder Build - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Completed the clecoed build of the rudder. Match drilled the appropriate holes and dimpled the stiffeners and other parts, except the new right skin in preparation for assembly.

  Dec 06, 2020     Rudder Build - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

First a refresher of the previous owner's work on the rudder was in order. While the left rudder construction was acceptable, the right side was not. I ordered a new right skin and internal parts. The new skin, sent by Van's, was the incorrect one. They did resend the correct one later. I resequenced the work area for rudder completion. I referenced the plans for assuring the prior work was done properly. The new right skin and the left skin were deburred. Per the plans, I trimmed the top of the right rudder and dimpled the aft most upper hole for a future blind rivet. I then clecoed the top rib, the shear clips and the right stiffeners to the spar.

  Dec 05, 2020     Elevator Build - (3.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Today I added the counterbalance weights to both of the elevators. On the first elevator we took a lot time fine tuning trimming those lead weights to the right size, thus it took 2.5 hours. The second elevator took only 30 minutes because we were more aggressive in cutting and sanding the lead weights. Both came out just fine. A bowl of water to cool the weight down after I let the heat build up each time while sanding it down was a big aid in not getting burned finger tips. The elevators are now done for a while until they're mounted on the empennage, except for the trim system as I await the new push rod parts.

  Dec 04, 2020     Elevator Build - (4.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

The elevators had their forward edges rounded. Mike K gave Roger and I a tutorial demo on the best way to do this. For a good fit, we figured the biggest take away that make the parts fit the best is to be sure the top edge break is a lot more than one would think. Rolling the edges with a steel rod, duct taped to the each edge was easy. Getting the top edge to mate nicely over the lower edge was the challenge. We discovered the key was to be sure the break on the forward edge was more dramatic than we thought it should be. Once you get that right, it came together very nice. Another takeaway, is to be sure the lower edge tucks in nice under the top edge. Riveting hints: 1- turns out you can push too hard o be careful doing that. 2 - Make sure the head of the riveter is kept in contact with the rivet and not allowed to break away and slide up the skin - don't ask how I know this. 3 - if using a pneumatic pull rivet tool, squeeze slowly and control the head of the tool. Also, despite the instructions comments that it's difficult to drill the rivets out, I found it's fairly easy - again no need to ask how I know.

  Dec 03, 2020     Elevators and Trim Tab - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Silicone was applied to the trim motor external Molex connectors. The wires coming from the trim motor were secured to their Molex connector and labelled. In attempt to secure the motor and wiring into the elevator I discovered the elevator trim pushrod was too short. I called Van's and they said the early pitch trim pushrods were too short. Mine measured 4.2 from hole center to hole center. The correct length should be 4.437. The correct one will be mailed to me. Note: disregard the page under the wiring, it just happened to be there when I took the picture.

  Nov 27, 2020     Trim Servo - (1.0 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Prepared the pitch trim servo for installation. Trimmed the connector and built the servo platform.

  Nov 25, 2020     Elevators and Trim Tab - (4.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Completed riveting the both elevators. The bottom skins were the toughest, i.e. getting the special bucking bar under the skin without doing any damage. The outboard and inboard rib ends/skin were very easily completed. I'll hold off fully completing them until the empennage portion is done and the elevators can be attached for counterbalancing weights and tips. The left elevator is in the same condition except now awaiting the trim servo work. The trim tab is attached via the hinge pin. Special note: The trailing edge rivet tool made the trailing edge completion very easy. An excellent buy from Aircraft Tool Supply.

  Nov 24, 2020     Elevators and Trim Tab - (2.0 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

While the fuel tank adhesive cures it's time to return to the empennage and complete some of that work. I double riveted the trailing edge of the trim tab and riveted the closeout tabs. Note the absence of waviness on the trailing edge. I also completed some more of the elevators construction by final riveting the outboard skins to the end rib. Still more to do, but closing in on completing them soon.