Rudder
7 September 2007
Section 7: The Rudder
The rudder has proved more challenging since it requires several techniques not seen yet. Ribs and stiffeners had to be cut and deburred prior to priming. Speaking of priming we have decided that a simple zinc-chromate rattle can will suffice for all the metal to metal contact points. All priming is preceded with a Scotchbrite treatment for adhesion. Since priming is performed as required and outside this technique is performed several times through the work session. Silver Wings (our hosts in the larger heated private hangar in the state) appreciated not spraying the other tenants in the hangar. This is a good place to discuss the support provided by Silver Wings. They have provided a large heated hangar area, use of the compressor and air hoses, Internet Service, bathroom facilities, and the occasional A and P advice when we are stuck on the plans. They have been instrumental and are very excited about this project. The Owner, Dr. Doug Pohl is himself a builder and is the proud owner of a Lancair. He loves builders and is hoping this project inspires and brings more builders like us to his hangar.
The rudder had the whole gang charging full steam ahead. The below photos show the cuts, deburring, priming, and cleco’d structure. Steps up to 7-9. You’ll see we had to stop awaiting sealant in a couple of pages.
Teresa went to work on the spar. I primed as we cut and deburred to stay ahead of the work. Notice the laptop. We spend many hours on the internet researching options, problems, ordering parts, and of course keeping this log up to date.
Naomi assisted with Clecos and riveting. She is really getting the hang of rivet gun.
Only a few drill outs occurred and most of them were mine.
As we started to check the mating of the two sides we elected to use regular rivets on one side rather than the pop rivets. Seemed to us like we could still make the mating work with one side using regular rivets and the other using pop rivets as the plan calls out. This is probably completely unnecessary however I just have a natural aversion to pop rivets. You can the stiffners on the right side awaiting the mating of sides after sealant of the trailing edge.
The stop point awaiting the tank seleant. It would have been nice to know we needed this before this point because we are at a work stop unless we want to skip ahead with the horizontal stabilizer but we decided this was a good place to stop for this section.
I want to mention the use of the inventory data base we created early in the project. This application has proved invaluable to us locating our parts. I highly recommend this to anyone with tight space and storage issues.
Holding at step 7-9: Time on Rudder so far: 22 hours.
12 September 2007
Borrowed pro-seal from another builder as I was too anxious to wait for Van's order to come in. We applied the sealant and had to fashion the strait edge to brace the rudder. We used a old Cessna seat rail and sets to keep it straight while it set. Two-day cure time will allow us to rivet on Saturday.
15 September, 2007
Completing Steps 7-9 through 7-12:
The rudder sat for 48 hours in this configuration.
The batteries were the only good weights in the hangar not pretty but served well holding everything where it needed to be for the next two days.
The easiest part of the final assembly was the spar placements. Lots of rivets but no major problems as we walked through the steps as shown below.
Although the back riveting on the trailing edge seemed have its risks with warping, bowing, and bending we walked each rivet as the plans call for and made it unscathed through the whole process. One footnote is the cushioned work table did not do as well as the hard wood bench.
Rolling the front edges was easy and the two halves seemed to fit much better than the practice kit. Another footnote is we finally figured out how to smoothly cut the vinyl protective plastic without making a mess.
One balance weight and everything came together well.
Total time on this section - 54 hours
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