Nick
Well Known Member
Long story short: About 3 weeks ago an acquaintances of mine better half decided that rear view mirrors were overraited and backed into my -4.
The good news is only the rudder was effected. The bad news is, I had a squished rudder.
I've done a LOT to this airframe. I didn't think that the rudder was one item that was in question. Now it was.
Pulled the rudder and started disassembly. My initial hope was I could just reskin it. That quickly faded.
The forward 'spar' was slightly tweaked. the 'L' stiffeners (3 of them) where destroyed. The bottom fiberglass cap and associated mounts were not to my standard.
Short version. I decided I was to build an entire new rudder.
So If I'm to build from the ground up, why not modernize it?
My -360 -4 will without effort go past 180ktas. I'm OK with that. I'd be more OK with that if ALL the control surfaces where balanced.
LETS BUILD A BALANCED RUDDER!!!
So that's what I did. 2 weeks of time, some .020, .025, and a little .032 later and here we are. Oh, and a custom riveted trailing edge. It should be expected at this point....
I promise that new paint is in the NEAR future.
The good news is only the rudder was effected. The bad news is, I had a squished rudder.
I've done a LOT to this airframe. I didn't think that the rudder was one item that was in question. Now it was.
Pulled the rudder and started disassembly. My initial hope was I could just reskin it. That quickly faded.
The forward 'spar' was slightly tweaked. the 'L' stiffeners (3 of them) where destroyed. The bottom fiberglass cap and associated mounts were not to my standard.
Short version. I decided I was to build an entire new rudder.
So If I'm to build from the ground up, why not modernize it?
My -360 -4 will without effort go past 180ktas. I'm OK with that. I'd be more OK with that if ALL the control surfaces where balanced.
LETS BUILD A BALANCED RUDDER!!!
So that's what I did. 2 weeks of time, some .020, .025, and a little .032 later and here we are. Oh, and a custom riveted trailing edge. It should be expected at this point....
I promise that new paint is in the NEAR future.