Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

Deburred lots of holes in the rudder skeleton.

Deburred the rest of the rudder stiffeners. Final drilled the rudder skin to the skeleton. Trimed the horn brace and final drilled that as well. It’s not mentioned anywhere in the instructions and not very clear on the plans, but I had to drill through the skin and bottom rib into the side of the horn brace.

I also made the two strips for attaching the bottom rudder fairing. I marked a line along the long edge 6/32″ in (2X rivet diameter) and also along the slanted edge. I attached the strips with clamps to the bottom rib and skin, lining up my line through the holes, and then drilled them. I’m sure glad these kits are now pre-drilled. It’s time consuming measuring, marking, and doing actual drilling (instead of just final drilling).

Everything is now disassembled and ready for more deburring and then dimpling.

Final drilled all of the rudder stiffeners to the skins. Deburred about half of the stiffeners before the cordless drill battery gave out. I think it’s just too cold in the garage for it (and me). Clecoed together the rest of the rudder skeleton and counterweight skin and final drilled all of the holes.

Clecoed the rudder skins to the skeleton. The instructions say to do this after the stiffeners have been back-riveted to the skins, but it will be a while before I can prime the stiffeners. Shouldn’t hurt to do this one little part out of sequence. The rudder is looking pretty cool.

Worked on fitting the rudder horn to the forward rudder spar. Lots of little pieces go together there. I was doing a lot of reading the instructions, studying the drawing, and scratching my head.

I got to “fabricate” a small piece out of some stock. It was actually just one cut on the band saw and some smoothing of the edges.

Trimmed, shaped, and smoothed the edges of the stiffeners for the rudder. There are a lot of those little dudes. The diagram in the drawings is a little confusing at first, but makes sense after you study it for a while. I clecoed the stiffeners to the left skin in preparation for match drilling.

Previewed the instructions for the rudder and stared at the stiffener stock, trying to figure out exactly where the cuts go.