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Another Rudder LE question

RVGator

Member
I am rolling the leading edge. As the pictures show I've not done a good job avoiding the "crease".

DSC00005.jpg


My concerns are these. I can force the two sides together and cleco them. Everything appears to seat very cleanly. But the joint is under a lot of stress trying to pull back apart. I've done an hour or so of massaging and nothing seems to improve.

DSC00004.jpg


Also, the plans show a dimension from the R-902 spar to the joint. On my rudder the apex is about 1/4" shorter than the published span (1 3/4" at the root and 1 5/8" at the tip).

I'm sure this is all the result of my poor rolling job. Will this dimension and the stress of the joint give me problems down the road or can I call this a rookie performance?
 
Pre-punched, right? The roll looks fine. Don't worry about the apex measurement. Better less than more (which would rub as the surface moves). Build on.
 
Rudder LE

Yep, mine looks much like that too (-9A). I suspect they didn't allow quite enough material to form a perfect radius with a tangent intersection when they designed the skins. Build on.
 
The radius on the leading edge of the control surfaces is in my very humble opinion one of the weakest design points of Vans kits. If ever I needed to build another I would very likely cut the material flush to the forward edge of the spar and form new one piece U-shaped parts to replace the part of the skins removed. It would be a much easier part to deal with than trying to bend the skins around a broom handle. Of course they would be attached mostly with pull rivets.
 
Have you..

... tried a stick or broom with smaller radius than the one you started out with?

Then you might be able to take out most of the stress which now want to separate the parts again.

Take a piece of scrap and try out different smaller brooms before you try on the rudder.
It might work and it might not, but then you'll find that out on the piece of scrap rather than the rudder.

I found that the rolling of the LE required more bending than I thought before I started.
BTW; I also used tape on the full length of the LE.
 
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what I did that helped me

I'm building an 8 but its the same. Instead of trying to roll the entire edge, I cut a one in wooden dowel to fit in between the hinge points closely. This gave me an inch or so to grab with pliers on each end of the skin. For me rolling a smaller section was much easier, especially keeping the downward pressure needed to prevent bending near the spar. One other thing I did was after getting it fitted well, I removed the clecoes and with my sheet metal pliers I rolled the last quarter inch or so of the top overlaying skin down. This gave me a good closing with no gaps when I riveted. Done the same on the short section at the end. I saved these dowels and used them on the other surfaces as well. Use some really good tape and a lot of it to hold the skin to the dowel too. Hope this helps and happy building.

bird
 
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I used several different diameter dowels to form a multi radius arch. It worked well but like I said I'd never do that again. Oh and lots of Gorilla tape.
 
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