I can't progress much further on the rudder unless I rivet
the stiffeners to the rudder skins. I laid out the stiffeners on the rudder
skins to ensure that the stiffeners did not interfere with the rudder spar and
trailing edge.
I then worked on the fit of the rudder skins around the R-405PD
rudder horn. The skins were a touch too tight, so using a small flat file I
carefully enlarged the opening. I was pleased with the fit of all pieces.
I
then began to scuff up all the rudder stiffeners, rudder skins as well as the
Vertical Stabilizer pieces with red scotchbrite pads.
I noticed that the VS-707 had a point of impact with
something located almost directly in the middle of the part. Something sharp
had struck it. I'm not too alarmed, but I figure that if I drilled out the
point of impact with a small #40 hole, this would relieve the stress point and
shouldn't cause any issues. My thinking is that this would be no different than
a tooling hole like on every other rib.
UPDATE! - (October 15th) I have received a confirmation
e-mail from Ken at Van's that my proposed solution will work just fine.
