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Vertical stabilizer

H

Humrnv

Member
My rudder skin has a crack near the lower hinge. I’m debating On just to a patch or rebuilding a new VS and rudder to have the thicker skin of the newer version, or doing the bigger version that the later -6 had. Any suggestion? If the the bigger version which RV was this borrowed from -7, or -9?

Any help would be appreciated
 
Humrnv said:
My rudder skin has a crack near the lower hinge. I’m debating On just to a patch or rebuilding a new VS and rudder to have the thicker skin of the newer version, or doing the bigger version that the later -6 had. Any suggestion? If the the bigger version which RV was this borrowed from -7, or -9?

Any help would be appreciated
Click to expand...
Only the rudder and elevator skins were thickened. But, 6 parts will not be pre-punched AFAIK. A few folks have put 7 VS and rudders on their 6’s
 
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There are basically three vertical stab/rudder combinations used on the two-seat side by side models.

1. The original RV-6 short tail without a counterbalance that uses the folded trailing edge. Also known as "bent" trailing edge.
2. The early RV-7, short, counterbalanced rudder version with the folded trailing edge that is the rudder that came from the RV-8.
3. The large, tall, counterbalanced rudder version that uses the double-flush rivets at the trailing edge that is used on the RV-7 and RV-9.

I have never seen a RV-6 with the largest rudder. But there are RV-6s with the early RV-7/RV-8 vertical stab/rudder.
Also, there has been some concern from other posters here that......if your RV-6 already balances towards being tail heavy, that the bigger parts will throw your empty Center of Gravity even farther aft.

It seems if you want the taller vertical stab/rudder then you need to be looking for the RV-8 parts.
 
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Show us a picture.
Stop drill and monitor. I had one small crack early and stopped drilled it and pro sealed a small patch on. I had a second at about 500 hours. Stopped drilled and left alone. Both cracks are less than 3/8” and haven’t propagated. You can’t see them unless you’re looking.
 
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