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replacing the rudder

aarvig

Well Known Member
I am just about ready to throw in the white flag on this rudder. In fact, I am so sick of it that I have moved on to the elevators to think about it for awhile. First of all, my TE didn't come out like I wanted. It has a very, very slight curve but the metal is very wavy due to hitting it with the mushroom set while back riveting. The counterbalance skin has a big dent in it. Today I riveted on the rudder horn brace, I waited to get a special bucking bar so I could place solid rivets. My rivet gun slipped and took a big chunk out of the rudder horn brace. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!:mad: Not only that, I bent the skin in that area too. I should've followed Vans instructions and just pop riveted the little bugger down there.
$400 to replace the rudder plus time. Might be worth it to just do-over. Thanks for letting me vent here.`
 
Don't get discouraged - it happens! It happened to me a lot, actually, when I was first starting. Two rudders, three trim tabs (wait until you get to the trim tab!), and lots of consternation about building more of them.

Something else I learned along the way - the "common perception" that blind rivets are for girly men is just silly. I've used a number of blind rivets where Van calls them out as being acceptable and I'm not ashamed of it. I figure Van is a smart guy, probably smarter than some of the blind rivet nay sayers, and build on. Being something of a perfectionist, this was hard for me to accept but I have found it to be healthy and helpful for my project.
 
You're not alone!

Hi Aaron,
I know this kind of thing is very frustrating but you will get better and my tech councelor has a saying that I refer to periodically: "you're not building a plane until you have one and half of them!" Well its not that bad but swallow hard, slow down, do something else and when you get back to it you'll wonder why it seemed so hard!
Good Luck
Paul
 
Don't be rushed to do anything.

Might be worth it to just do-over. Thanks for letting me vent here.`

Aaron,
You might consider "cooling your jets" for a while. I, like a few others, but some extra empenage parts. Now that I going slowly insane working the fiberglas **** we have to do I wish I had something "real" to work on as a distraction. Set the offending part aside and move on to something else. Trust me in a year that emp work will seem like childs play to you.
 
Trailing edges

Aaron,

Let me know when you are about to do the next trailing edge. I used a process that was a combination of what I thought was the best advice from other builders and it turned out perfect.

Hang in there,

Tom
 
scrap

Back when Shawn Scott and I were building our first Rvs in 1995 we would call each other and ask,, what progress did you make today??. We would often " say I spent the day building scrap". It was true, alot of our first days building RVs were spent in the learning stages... And we built a lot of scrap parts. We kept at it...
Shawn and I have built almost 50 RVs since those days, not together, but we have 'helped' others finish up their RV projects. (I have built 4 RVs for my self.) Many builders have come to me and wanted help to just "get this thing finished,,, ,This Year!!!"
I have had a lot of builders come in and had me do the FWF after they have built most of an RV. They have been working for 3 to 7 years....and JUST want to get it flying before they loose their medical,, or expire all together.
FWF does not count off 'much' on the new 51 percent rules..

I have a pile of rudders and elevators here that are Not airworthy. I had my customers redo them.

We all make mistakes, redo, or fix it. You will be fine and have the RV Grin! Or,,,,,, bring it to www.RVCentral.US
 
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Mesed up my trailing edge, drilled it all out and redid the skins, chalk it up to good pratice.
 
AA.......

You are a "real" builder now! Bring it to the hangar and we can take a look. I'll show you all the warts on my emp....

I could tell you I never replaced parts, but I would be lying. The rudder horn was my first.
 
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