Sally discussing the finer points of rudder building.

Jan listening intently to Sally's directions

Bill follows along in the plans listening intently to Sally as he always does. But where does it say to 'clip' the wings?

Time to take those instructions - freshly delivered and get started.

Removing the protective film continues.

making good use of the soldering iron and a straight edge.

Cleco-ing the stiffeners onto the skin.

Jan cleco's while Bill finishes another stiffener.

The following weekend was a break.

Our new work bench is serving it's useful purpose - though it's not one I'm likely to tell the local Porsche club about!

The two skins have been cleco-ed. Now we're ready to move on.

Time to dimple.

Before being wacked

After dimpling.

Dimpling the stiffeners.

Jan working intently.

Time for the back rivet plate.

Jan's special back riveting good luck shoes...oh Lucy...

Notice the parts have been primered. The rivets are inserted into the skin and being held in place with rivet tape.

Putting in the rivets and applying the rivet tape.

Riveting in the stiffeners. Start on one end and work to the other.

Opps!

Yep, not to be out done I too had to do it! - Ouch!

The cut on the first side of the R-410 horn brace.

The first 'uni-bit' hole in the kit!

This is my other concern..the hole on the right.

The spar and the rudder horn seem to be off by 1/16 of an inch. This is before I drill!

Another shot of mis-alignment.

Jan and Bill removing the protective film.

I should be shot! I got so busy working that I forgot to take pictures! We created the stiffeners in record time between the three of us.

This was on the way back from the Dallas Aircraft Salvage openhouse. There I had the great opportunity to drool over an incredible amount of aircraft parts, avionics, engines and even a 172 that was waiting to be put together.

Notice you can see barely make out both ends of the back rivet plate. It's long enough to go end to end on the shorter part of the rudder but definitely won't do for the longer parts.

The result of not making sure the rivet was actually on the rivet backplate before it received a few small wacks with the rivet gun. Can you guess where the end of the back plate was?

Notice it seems pretty close to the edge. I was concerned about this but was told by the factory it was no big deal. The uni-bit hole is still on center-line with the other holes around it, so I guess this alignment was a factory alignment. Gus's reply was, "The minimal edge distance on the spar is OK for the bearing. The load is all taken by the angle and reinforcement on the spar."

Again a check with the factory. Gus replied that "The holes in the angle are made on a different machine than the punch press and they can vary a little. You can just drill through the spar using the angle as a guide and it will be OK."

Now back to work!