Rudder is completed

 

Finally, the rudder is complete. It only took me 6 months or so. Next thing to do is to show it to our EAA tech counselor to make sure he approves it. On to horizontal stabilizer!

Rudder is nearing completion

 

I have done the trailing edge of the rudder. I was obsessing about it for several months, then I did it in afternoon.

I followed the plans, except for using mushroom set to finish off all the rivets. I was doing gradual backriveting on them and things looked well. When I tried to use mushroom set, the edge started deforming almost immediately. I stopped and continued with backriveting. 

I think it turned out well, except the small part where I used mushroom set, which is still OK.

Rudder is getting along

Dasha, mama,  grandma and me, we all took part in making progress on our rudder, which now is getting ready for trailing edge riveting.

Rudder work continues

In the past week and a half, somehow a state of normalcy is feeling stronger and stronger. Dasha is getting used to school, so things calming down.
After visiting Triple Tree Fly in, I've started working of rudder again.
I've primed all parts, riveted stiffeners to the skins, riveted bottom rib and horn, plate nuts. Almost every day I did a little bit, so that today I'm ready to start mixing Proseal to attach rudder edge and rivet it inside.
I managed to break my pop rivet puller today. Although I think I have fixed it, I've lost a retaining spring ring which holds the mechanism in the housing. Tomorrow will need to visit Lowes to get that ring.
When riveting bottom rib to right skin, I could not put a flush rivet in the aft hole. I mean, I could put the rivet in, but there was no way to squeeze it even using thin nose yoke... so I used pop rivet which is called on the left skin. I guess my rudder will have these pop rivets on both sides. 

Rudder skins are dimpled

I dimpled rudder skins tonight. DRDT-2 works very well.
My mom dimpled a few holes too. This is getting to be a truly family airplane. 

1 hour 15 minutes today.

More rudder work today

Today I have made a lot of progress.
I have match drilled all holes in the rudder, but then I ran out of cleco's again. Page 7/6 calls for drilling and clecoing every hole both in spar and in the trailing edge. I started with spar (after I match drilled all stiffeners and ribs). By the end I had maybe 15 clecos left. So I decided to keep clecos in every other hole in the spar. That had freed up quite a few of them.
Then I drilled and clecoed every hole in the trailing edge.
After that I have disassembled the rudder and deburred holes and everything else that was not. There was quite a lot of deburring, but it is done.
I then proceeded to dimple ribs and stiffeners.
Interesting, plans call for dimpling of bottom rib (R-1004A/B) and spar (R-1002). I used my pneumatic squeezer to dimple stiffeners with #40 (3/32) dies. Dimples look very nice. However, when I dimpled bottom rib, dimples did not look very pronounced. A rivet does not set flush in there. I decided to ask Vans - should the bottom rib and spar flanges be countersunk instead of dimpled? Let's see what they say.
Aside from skins and spar everything is now dimpled.
Not much to show, but here is the rudder after match drilling during disassembly.

Hours today 7:45.
Total hours on rudder 12:45
Total hours on build 82:45.

Vertical stabilizer is completed

It is really done. Everything is now riveted.
Dasha said: "Какая классная штука" (What an awesome thing!)

My wife has helped to buck these rivets. What would I do without you?

Now, let's help dad with the next phase of the airplane.

Total hours on vertical stabilizer - 70
Total house on build - 70
This number of hours is approximate. Since my initial log was hacked and lost, I can only guess. I know it was slow, so let me make it 70 hours.