Saturday, March 11, 2017

Empennage, Rudder (Part 6)

Yesterday, the Reinforcement Plates, Counterbalance Rib, Bottom Rib, Shim, and Rudder Horn were all clecoed to the Spar.  Today, I was able to make significant progress on the Rudder.  I riveted those pieces together with the appropriate rivets called for in the plans.  Additionally, the K1000-6 Nut Plates were riveted to the Spar and the Reinforcement Plates.  Below is the upper Reinforcement Plate and the Nut Plate.
 
 

This is the lower section of the Spar assembly.  The Reinforcement Plate is on the opposite side and you can't see it from this angle.  You can, however, see there is a missing rivet in the two pictures below.  The plastic Tie-Wrap Clip will be riveted in this location with an LP4-5 rivet.
 
The opposite side with the Reinforcement Plate in view.
 
This is a forward looking view of the Spar.  From this view, you can see a couple of the Stiffener Shear Clips and the Bottom Rib attached to the Spar.
 

After riveting the Spar assembly together, I moved on to attaching the Stiffener Shear Clips and the Stiffeners with clecos.  Below, you can see the seven sets of Stiffeners between the Rudder Tip and Bottom Ribs.
 

The Trailing Edge Wedge came in a length that was about a foot to long.  So, it had to be clecoed to the Right Skin and cut to length.  This picture was taken after I cut the wedge.
 

The plans are very clear that the holes in the Trailing Edge Wedge need to be drilled perpendicular to the chord line.  So, to make sure I didn't mess it up, I got this Trailing Edge Drill Jig from Cleaveland Aircraft Tool.  It's machined to accept the Training Edge Wedge and assures the holes are drilled (and later machine countersunk) perpendicular as described in the plans.  This is the jig and the jig with the Trailing Edge Wedge in it.  Well worth the money in my opinion!
 
 

After drilling the #40 holes in the Trailing Edge Wedge, I aligned the Right Skin and Trailing Edge Wedge to the Rudder skeleton assembly and clecoed the upper and lower corners.
 

Then, the entire Right Skin. In this view, you can also see the Rudder Horn Brace and Attach Strips.  I did the same thing for the Left Skin.
 

Riveting the Spar


Clecoing the Left and Right Skins to the Rudder skeleton assembly.