I’m still awaiting the arrival of my next batch of primer since the first one didn’t go so well during shipping. Rather than sit around waiting to prime parts, I figured I would get around to creating even more parts to prime! On to the rudder it is.
The first few steps of the rudder were rather tedious in that you had seven pieces of standard length aluminum parts that all needed to be cut down, deburred, and ground to exact sizes in tapering lengths in order to form the ribs of the rudder. It took a fair bit of time, but once I got in the groove I think it went pretty well. I was not able to get these pieces to fit into my band saw, so I used the right handed snips to cut them a bit oversize then flattened them out with the shaper tool and sanded them to the exact length. All together I thought it was a pretty good way to go rather than trying to force a power tool-based solution. Hand tools in many ways really are the way to go.
I can already see the rudder taking shape and look forward to getting this ready to go as well. It should be nice to have both the rudder and the vertical stabilizer ready to prime at the same time, then just dimple and rivet away for a full day and I’ll have both components complete!
Perhaps more important that any of this, I took my daughters to the local EAA chapter pancake breakfast and fly-in this morning. I was honestly blown away. We have been going for the past several years but this year was overwhelming to see the crowd. I started my private pilot training here back in 2000 (Noblesville – I80) so it is always a nice homecoming feeling for me. The community sure does support aviation – it is wonderful to see!
My daughters at the airfield.
Standing in front of Larry’s T-6. A beautiful plane that we see fly overhead most nights of the summer. The girls had to drag me away from this one… He also has an old Stearman that is simply a work of art.
Total time today = 2.5 hours
Total time empennage = 15.5 hours
Total time aircraft = 15.5 hours