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Ugh .. first muck up

bkervaski

Hellloooooooo!
Testing
Well, first major setback .. I get to rebuild my rudder .. almost had it buttoned up (literally about 10 rivets left and after that just had to roll the skins) and it was a really good assembly .. then got distracted and put a huge smiley in the skin with the rivet gun .. so I figured, and this was my mistake, I'll just put a bucking bar underneath it inside and smooth it out a bit which resulted in a crease and ruining the skin.

I started to disassemble and about 20 minutes into drilling out rivets and looking at what had to come apart I decided it was going to be easier just to rebuilt it from scratch. Vans gets my CC on Monday.

What stinks is the one thing I was really worried about was the trailing edge and that was just about the easiest part of the rudder.

Feeling defeated but I'll consider today a training session and build it better the second time around.
 
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Welcome to the second rudder club. Your not alone my friend.

Ps. you may want to consider just skipping it till the next kit. I just threw it into my fuselage kit to save shipping.
 
Me too... Van's should save builders the trouble and just include parts to build 2 rudders LOL

Build on!
 
IMO, very few people build perfect airplanes. This is a situation (too late, I know) where you make the mistake, finish the structure, and reconsider in 3 years. You might realize that your airplane is gonna have a few smileys, and that a little filler at paint time will take care of all of 'em. That may be a better option than spending the time and money to build everything twice.

If, at the end of the project, the worst oops on the project is on the rudder, maybe you do rebuild it...
 
You are fine - that was just the practice rudder kit. There are more hidden practice projects. :)
 
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Sounds right to me.

Building the tail is a good place to start because the parts are smaller and you can get the practice you need for those big part you will be doing later.
You are right where you need to be. Keep up the good work and you will look back on it and have a good chuckle when you are boring holes in the sky.
Yours, R.E.A. III # 80888
 
Hey Robert .. we've all been there. My biggest foo-bar resulted in a whole new set of metal for the canopy frame. I consider myself blessed that I can screw things up on the weekend, put an order in to Vans on Sunday evening, and have my do-over parts in SF ready to go by Wednesday, shipped by slow boat from the Mother Ship.

My rule: if I'm not happy, chuck it, order it, and don't look back. Gotta love those secret practice kits.
 
O ya, the start of the aluminum scrap pile, 2 rudder club member here also.....
 
If I remember correctly, the total price for a new rudder on the 14 is $300 and change. By throwing it into your next kit the shipping is essentially free. I know for me $300 is worth not grimacing each time I look at my tail.
 
Thanks for all the responses!

Yep, just over $300 for the new rudder parts.

Looking forward to many more hidden "training" assemblies ...
 
I replaced one rudder skin :)

while you're at it - since your first rudder is almost done, inspect it for oil canning. something I didn't notice I had until it was too late. I'm living with it until she is flying since it's a common issue, but may look into a new rudder some day.
 
I think there is a way - I will try it next time. (everything i'm saying is about my RV-7. no idea if RV14 is similar)

First, have you laid your rudder down to see if it is perfectly symmetrical? i.e. if you lay it down flat on a table, does the trailing edge lay flat? or is it off the table? if you flip it over, is it off the table by the same amount? or also flat? check top and bottom.

If the answer is no, I'm thinking that could be the cause of any oil canning. I saw a while back someone made a jig to make sure the rudder was symmetrical as they assembled.

I'm no expert builder. so take everything with 2 grains of salt.
 
One technique (among many I'm sure) to ensure a straight trailing edge on control surfaces is to cleco a piece of angled aluminum (match drilled) to the trailing edge as the epoxy cures over several days. To make sure the angled aluminum does not epoxy itself to the trailing edge, a piece of heavy duty tape was stuck to the angled aluminum and the side going against the rudder was brushed with a mold release. After 3 days of epoxy curing the clecos were removed and the angled aluminum released very easily.
I'm a first time builder and no expert to be sure but I was taught this at Synergy Air which has used this technique over hundreds of builds of different RV models. The angled aluminum was match drilled many builds prior to my build, I just used it. This deviates from how the plans direct it be done, but a very straight trailing edge was achieved on the rudder and both elevators. You can see some pics of this process for the rudder on my blog dated 14 March.
 
One technique (among many I'm sure) to ensure a straight trailing edge on control surfaces is to cleco a piece of angled aluminum (match drilled) to the trailing edge as the epoxy cures over several days. To make sure the angled aluminum does not epoxy itself to the trailing edge, a piece of heavy duty tape was stuck to the angled aluminum and the side going against the rudder was brushed with a mold release. After 3 days of epoxy curing the clecos were removed and the angled aluminum released very easily.
I'm a first time builder and no expert to be sure but I was taught this at Synergy Air which has used this technique over hundreds of builds of different RV models. The angled aluminum was match drilled many builds prior to my build, I just used it. This deviates from how the plans direct it be done, but a very straight trailing edge was achieved on the rudder and both elevators. You can see some pics of this process for the rudder on my blog dated 14 March.


I did this technique. while it guarantees the trailing edge is straight, it does not guarantee it's in the same plane as the centerline of the spar.
 
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