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Low point of the build so far.

Bullseye

Well Known Member
Well, today was the low point in the build so far.

I was fiddling around with the empennage, trying to set it up to look like a tail for the ?completed empennage? picture everyone posts, and I dropped the rudder.

[horrified silence]

It hit on the bottom aft edge, bounced a little, and then hit in the top rear edge.

First bounce.

20100810-002-large.jpg


Second, and worse bounce.

20100810-004-large.jpg


I was (am) devastated.

After staring at it for a good ten minutes, and flashing through all of the days and hours I put in on the rudder, I finally figured out I could probably drill out all the skin rivets and replace just the skins. (After a thorough investigate of each part in the skeleton, as well.)

But.

I?ve also always wanted to put the smaller RV-8 rudder back on the airplane, which should save weight and bring the CG a little further forward. I?m going to find a copy of the RV-8 preview plans tomorrow and see how hard it will be to build the RV-8 rudder from what I have.

Here?s the thing that really stings. While I was messing around with the vertical stabilizer and rudder, I was even thinking about how much effort this was for a stupid picture, and that a second pair of hands would be helpful.

This was me just being cute (STUPID) trying to get a picture for the site, and being careless. I wanted give everyone this example of what NOT to do so people don't make this same mistake.

The good news I that the wing arrives this week and I can busy myself with the inventory while I think about what to do.

I'm just glad the "I'm gonna quit" thought lasted only about 0.05 seconds before I decided that I have to press on.

Anyone have experience putting the smaller (-8) rudder on their RV-7?
 
andrew, i follow your blog and am at about the same point you are in my build (only that my wings will arrive friday!)

I was going to setup for the same picture, but something has held me back, and then i pondered doing it myself w/ one pair of hands


now seeing this, i think I should refrain, if it makes you feel better, perhaps you took one for the team and others will avoid doing this solo
 
The 7's had a smaller rudder in the beginning...Van's thought the bigger one was important enough for better spin recovery that they sent out a free replacement rudder to everyone who had been sent the smaller one.

I have an original small rudder hanging in my garage...I am in East TN... You can have it if you want to come get it or ???
 
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I may take you up on that smaller rudder.

Let me think about it, and I'll send you a PM in a few days.

I'm still kind of in shock about it.
 
now that you've done it once, you could whip up another rudder in less than a full weekend. No big deal.
 
Yeah, and I have a feeling the damage is limited to the skins and the trailing edge wedge.

With some careful drilling out of rivets, I could maybe even save the stiffeners.

I'm going to inventory my wing kit, then drill the rudder apart and see what I can see on the inside.

I don't know that I am comfortable with a "sport aerobatic" airplane with only normal category-ish spin recovery techniques.

I did find the service bulletin from Van's, though.

http://www.vansaircraft.com/pdf/sb02-6-1.pdf

It's an interesting read.
 
My low point was when I was nearly finished with the project, just preping some final stuff before painting. I was inside the cockpit when my phone rang and I hurried to get it. In the process of getting out quickly, I fell down and torn the bottom skin (skirt) that covers the bottom portion of the wing. The pain of that prevented me from feeling the big cut on my arm and head. But the cut was only about an inch and easily repairable, specially that is at the bottom and hardly can be seen.
Like Scott said, you can build another one in less then half of the time and probably even a better rudder.
 
<snip> I was inside the cockpit when my phone rang and I hurried to get it. In the process of getting out quickly, I fell down and torn the bottom skin (skirt) that covers the bottom portion of the wing. The pain of that prevented me from feeling the big cut on my arm and head. <snip>

The older I get, the more annoying phones become. I'll take away the lesson to leave my phone in the house when I'm in the shop...
 
If it makes you feel any better I screwed up my rudder on the trailing edge, drilled out all rivets and bought new skins and stiffners. chauk it up as experience, the second one will turn out better than the first!
 
Rudder

If you had to do this to any part of the aircraft, the rudder is the one! Just buy a new one, it will be done quickly. Keep this one on the wall as decoration, and a reminder.

Or, just keep an eye out for someone selling a tail kit - they come up from time to time. There is no hurry - you won't need the rudder for a while!
 
Group hug. Been there myself.

Same dang thing happened to me. Then Van's decided I should have a free one for the RV-7A. The smaller one is in a safe place because it still looks nice and I have not had to chop any pieces out for other projects...yet.... My father-inlaw helped me with the second one and I almost bought a third one after that. Be careful of a helper who thinks you can finish a plane in his 4 week vacation! These things are easier to make the second and third time around.:rolleyes:

I finished the project with hardly any other mistakes and only a couple of drilled rivits. There is hope.
 
Ouch, ouch

Yah bend in the Trailing edge hurts.. It seems like a lot of work down the drain at the moment, but just regard it as your practice piece. Make a new one and do more practice. In the end you probably be more happy than knowing that the rudder trailing edge is as straight as you wanted to be. All the Smiley's will be gone and your new rudder will be better than the old one.

Keep Pounding those rivets.

Good luck

Pete
 
I also have a small rudder if you need it,mine was a small rudder for a 7.dont know if Brantels was originally a 6 or 7, i think there might have been a difference in the skin thickness,either way brian and i ussually fly out of the same airport.We can get you one either way.
 
Mine was built with the 7 skins...Bob, Tim and I are always looking for someplace to fly on the weekends.....
 
Don't feel bad - I had to build a whole second set of ailerons when I built them both backwards, at the same time (DOH!)

Then I broke my slider frame by jumping on it (DOH!)

Who knows what will happen next?!?! :eek:

I remember that I dented my VS. When I pull it down for final assembly if I don't "like" it, I'll build another. No big deal.

The good news about all these mistakes is that I have lots of spare aluminum for little brackets, etc.
 
Second, and worse bounce.

20100810-004-large.jpg


Oh NOOOOOOOooooo!

mrbill.png


I banged up my rudder too. I just ordered a new skin, cut the old one in half down the trailing edge (one piece skins in those days). I used the old skin as a template to drill the stiffner holes and all was well. As they say around here "Build on Brutha"

Paul Danclovic
Jamestown NC
RV-8A N181SB
 
I had the HS and elevators all together and asked my son to help move them. I forgot the fiberglass tips were on and unsecured. He picked up one end and --crash! It got the end of the right elevator. I drilled out the rivets, straightened everything as best I could and went on. I can see the damage, but no one else has noticed, as far as I know. It is all part of the learning curve. I would put off fixing it, as others have mentioned. Something will turn up.

Bob Kelly
 
My two year old daughter says "Boo Boo boom boom airplane go fly" while looking at your rudder. I am so proud!
 
If you are buying two skins, you might as well buy 'new' other parts. I agree with Scott that it is less than a weekend.

Also: I suspect looks is a way less important deal than spin recovery - I wouldn't swap to the small rudder.
 
Yep... Been there and done that!

I dropped a completed fuel tank while moving it from one storage location to another. Dropped it on the inboard leading edge and bent the skin pretty badly! The ding is about 4" by 4" of leading edge real estate.:mad:

After the vocabulary lesson I gave myself, I finally got the tank stored in it's new location and gave myself time to think about it. Turns out that the wing root aluminum strip covers about 80% of the ding, and the remaining 20% is visible to me but I haven't ever heard any comments about it.

Glad I didn't have to build a new tank!
 
Okay, so you built the trim tab into the rudder. All custom and what-not!
I know the feeling. Pushed my just-primed fuselage out of the hangar paint booth on New Year's Day 2008 so I could put the wings in the booth. Had the fuselage wrapped in "Sharkskin" plastic to protect the paint since it would be a while before I did the finish coats. The firewall was on the rolling rotisseire stand bolted to the firewall and the (heavy) tail was resting on a sawhorse type thing with a rubber pad. Well, it was kind of windy. My girlfriend screamed my name, and I turned around just in time to see the tail sliding off the sawhorse. I guess the wind caught the plastic like a sail. You never heard a more sickening sound. Landed right on the boarding steps. My heart sank as we unwrapped the plastic and saw the dents in the side skins just above the step plates. Inside was worse. It buckled the formers. After lots of explicatives and hand wringing, I (eventually) removed the steps, cut out the damaged section of the formers, got a body guy to work the dents out, and spliced in new sections of the formers. You can still see slight dents in the skin if you look, but nobody has ever noticed unless I point it out. That my friend, was a VERY bad New Years Day.
 
You're not the only one, my friend. I did the SAME EXACT THING as you did. Same stupid idea, too, setting it up for a picture when I should have had an extra hand or two. The only difference is, I saw it falling and I caught it after the first bounce. The lower trailing edge of my rudder looks very much like yours.

I ended up straightening it out as best as I could and filing and smoothing it. The corner was left a bit rounded and there are some small ripples left in the skin that I can't get out. I plan on fiberglassing over it all when I attach the rudder bottom so it will all be covered up and never show. I know that's not an option for you since yours took the second bounce, but you'll find a solution.

As they say... Build on. It's not the end of the world. If this is the last big mistake you make, you're fortunate. You'll be a better builder and much more careful from this point on.
 
Wow!!! Who would have thought that so many of Van's rudders were damaged by people trying to get the "Emp Finished" pic????
 
It's nice to know I'm not the only one to damage one of my precious airplane parts.

After re-reading the SB from Van's, I've decided that I'm not interested in running a flight test program for spin recovery with the smaller rudder. (It's never the intentional spin recovery that will get me, it will be the botched aerobatic maneuver into an inverted spin.) Even if I never ran into any real trouble, what if I ever sell the plane and something happens. I don't want a question of spin characteristics to come up in court.

So I'm going to order the required parts to rebuild mine (I'll probably attempt this during the wing build, when I get tired of deburring ribs.)

Anyway, In the interest of saving others from attempting the "finished emp pic," I am going to set the new standard.

Here is my finished emp pic.

2-15-10-002-large.jpg
 
Don't order the parts (yet). There are lots of the "conversion" kits that Van's shipped that are just sitting in peoples' shops. When my rudder was damaged in an unfortunate hangar incident I was able to get one for free here on VAF and build my new rudder.
 
Been There

When I read this thread, I just had to start laughing. Did exactly the same thing. Had the rudder all set up. Stood back to take the photo. Gust of wind comes up and the rudder went bouncing. I decided to wait till final assembly to see what I thought. I'm about there now and will probably re-build the rudder. The fiberglass fairing on the bottom just doesn't fit right and the ding is way too obvious. Probably needs a warning on the plans:
DO NOT PHOTOGRAPH UNSUPPORTED

Regards,

Michael Wynn
RV 8
Finishing
San Ramon, CA
 
Gosh, I had put my fuse on two sawhorse to lift it to install the landing gear. In the process of installing and reinstalling the main wheel to get every thing right. I had not paid much attention to the amount of weight I had added to those poor sawhorses. I had just finished the last wheel nut and stepped back to look at it and it happened, the very first landing of my aircraft as the sawhorses could not take the weight any more and broke, luckily the wheels were on securely. It was my first and only nose wheel landing with no damage what so ever. And then they say RVs can not take a nose wheel landing :)
 
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