Trimmed and finished the rudder horn brace and fabricated the rudder bottom attach strips. A common mistake with the rudder horn brace is to trim too much off it. When you drill it the holes end up being too close to the edge. Thanks to some other builder’s who kept excellent logs, I avoided this:…

Well today ended with something that looks like a rudder. Pretty exciting. I prepped the spar and ribs. This involved match drilling all the holes in the rudder horn, reinforcement plates (on the spar where the bearings will eventually connect to the Vert. Stab.), and ribs. The top rib and counterbalance rib required some fluting…

Finally, got the first part of the rudder (preparing the skins) done today. This was also the first time I got to try back-riveting. Up to this point, I have squeezed and bucked rivets. Back-riveting is the easiest. Now that I said that, I will say I screwed up but, it was not anything major. I…

Today was a fun day and ended with the parts being ready to rivet together finally. First I primed the stiffeners: Then, with the help of Leza, I got both rudder skins dimpled. This was a bit of a milestone in the project as it was the first time she helped me with it. Thanks,…

Another small chunk done today. Prepped stiffeners for priming.

De-burred all match drilled holes in the stiffeners and skins. Dimpled stiffeners with pneumatic squeezer:

Things are coming along slowly but surely. Had another run of concert performances the past couple of weeks. Today I smoothed the edges of the stiffeners and match drilled them to the rudder skins. The builder’s manual instructs you to use a table you can drill into (So you can cleco the skin and stiffener…

Not a lot to report. Finished trimming stiffeners today:

I took quite a long hiatus from the project after finishing the Vertical Stabilizer. Quite a few music gigs and a lot of holiday plans kept me away. I’m slowly getting back into and started on the rudder today. Here are all the parts: I didn’t get much done but, was able to finish “rough cutting”…