Prepping the rudder skins, stiffeners and the Verticle Stablizer - 2 hours

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.

Fitting the rudder counterbalance skin - 2.5 hours

Since I couldn't do much with working on advancing the HS, I moved back onto the rudder. I Cleco'd the R-903 tip rib and the R-912 counterbalance rib to the rudder spar. I then fitted the counterbalance skin to the assembly. The fit is very snug, so I was sure to take my time and ensure that each hole lined up nicely.

I then worked on getting the counterbalance weight set in the counterbalance rib. I set the weight in the rib and used the AN509 screw through the tooling hole. I then used a #12 bit to drill out the two holes. I then used the 3/16-#10 dies to countersink the rib, and the I machine countersunk the weight. 

The new parts on the HS front spar arrive - 6.5 hours

I got home early from work around noon and low and behold my new HS front spar parts had arrived. I didn't waste much time to get things started. I big difference between this set up and the last is that I was very careful to mark out as many centre lines as possible on each part. Taking a tip from the horrible build DVDs that you can buy from vans is ensuring that the center line down the front spar is maintained. After measuring my old spar, it wasn't quite straight as I would like it to be. So this redo allowed me to fix that too.

I drew out and centreline on a long piece of MDF and had everything squared up. I then worked on the relief holes. I then worked on the stiffeners and the angles. In order to get things to line up perfectly, I found that I had to ever so slightly file the edge where the two front spars met. Now everything was straight and true. I drilled as many holes with the drill press as I could. Perfection! I was so happy with how clean and nice it all turned out. Big improvement from my last attempt.

Then I trimmed the angles....oh crap!! The band saw cuts were a tad close to my lines, but the real kicker was how easily the 3m wheel cuts through the soft angle aluminum...much easier then the much thinner alloy pieces. I ended up rounding one angle much too close to the hole and compromising the edge distance. A very common problem...but annoying nonethess. I've already decided to order the angles again. Just a huge warning... Treat this part carefully as it is very easy to cut too much, even though it's thickness makes it look hard to cut!

I'm sitting writing this blog at the local pub drinking a beer severely questioning what have I got myself into screwing things up so often!....I suppose this is one of the rights of passage that I must
go through.

Rudder is back on - 3 hours

I missed the Fed Ex guy so my new front spar parts will have to wait until tomorrow. Instead, i started working on match drilling the rudder skin. 

I then worked for a bit on the new R-904 bottom rib. I cleco'd everything up and used a uni-bit on the larger hole. I match drilled the bottom rib.

Then I sat in the basement for a while and flutted the rudder ribs.