Had to move the empennage down to a lower table so that I could fit the vertical stab and rudder. It's 100 degrees outside so I wasn't going to get much done if I had to push it outside again. And not that the garage is much cooler but I was expecting a lot of iterations to get the rudder fit right.
Got the vertical stab bolted as before with no problem. Then screwed all the rod bearings into the rudder the 3/4” reference dimension shown in the plans. Starting at the top, got the upper bearing in the bracket. It is really tight and I found I had to use a wrench to slightly pry the steel attach brackets open. Once the rod was in, I had to hold the bolt with needle nose pliers and try to fish it in from the top. Not easy. Dropped a lot of bolts and had the kids near by to pick them up and hand them to me since I could not let go of the rudder. Once the top bolt was in, it was a bit easier but still tough.
Initial fit was rubbing along the skins toward the bottom and the measured movement was greater much greater than the 2 3/16”. So I turned the bottom rod out a few turns and re-installed. Took about six iterations of taking off and putting back on to get it right. No rubbing, free swinging, and seems to hit the stops right about the same time it hits stabilizer skin.
Big weekend! I would have rather been headed to Oshkosh but Section 11 is done for now. Will finish the trim during final assembly. On to the fiberglass work!