Dec 26 -- Work on Right Elevator

The project just sat for a long time, thanks to work -- which included multiple trips, culminating in an around-the-world trip to Singapore and then India. Would have preferred to stay home and build the plane; however work is what it is...

No pics -- just worked on more internal parts and dimpling. Am not following the instructions closely, because they called for installation of the stiffeners before the parts I am currently working on. However that approach seems like it will simply get in the way of dimpling. (Others have blogged about similar deviations.)

Tomorrow it's off to Portland to check out a project that is much farther along -- and is for sale. Not convinced that I will purchase it, thus continued work on my empennage.

Work is going to get even crazier in the coming months. Not certain that I will even have time to go out to the garage to look at the project.

Total time today: 2.5 hours

Nov 7 -- Start Right Elevator

RV-9s are noted for "tail wagging" in rough air, so someone is developing a solution in the form of a rudder trim tab and electronic controller. I heard about this within a day of starting to skin the rudder, and decided to set the rudder aside in order to wait and see what the options are. Products such as this take an order of magnitude longer to develop than predicted, so I may well finish the rudder without a trim tab. However it doesn't cost anything to wait a while...

Spent a good share of the day getting started on the right elevator. Cut stiffeners to length, then trimmed to shape, match drilled them, deburred both the stiffeners and elevator skin, removed plastic protective coating (stiffeners only), used Coleman fuel to remove plastic covering residue, and finally dimpled the stiffeners. I will need an end person to help with skin dimpling, so that waits for another day.

The photo sequence does a good job of showing how things progress from parts covered in blue plastic to (in this instance), parts such as stiffeners that are dimpled and almost ready for primer.

Of course I really should have been working on...work. I am such a slacker.

Time: 5.0 hours. (Yes, this took a whole lot longer than it appears.)

Oct 30 -- More Rudder Work

Been over a month since this blog was updated: the result of being in Europe for several weeks, followed by catching up with life. I did actually work on the project last weekend too; however that work consisted of drilling out the rivets that attached the rudder horn. I'd missed a couple of bunged-up rivets.

The last several days consisted of reworking those parts, plus adding a counterweight to the rudder. Had to relieve the edges of the lead weight just a bit to make it slide into place. Note in the photos that I also primed the counterbalance. Not certain that lead and aluminum set up galvanic action; however not interested in finding out the answer...

Time: 3 hours

Sep 26 -- Rudder Horn

Not much building at the moment, because the day job is all consuming. Did get the rudder horn attached after both priming and a final coat of paint.

I was able to set solid rivets by using the longeron yoke in the rivet squeezer. Probably could of turned the bottom rivets around so that the shop head was inside the rudder horn; however this direction made both control and inspection much easier.

Time: 0.5 Hrs

Sep 6 -- More Countersinking and Priming

Not a whole lot to report for Labor Day: primed parts, a tad of riveting (doublers) and finished countersinking the trailing edge insert. Mostly a weekend with Patrick, as he starts his visit from Africa.

Time: 2 Hours

Sep 5 -- Dimple, Prime, Countersink Rudder

The past couple of days represented quite a bit of progress on the rudder, but without major visible results simply because this assembly involves so much effort. I dimpled everything that requires dimpling (hopefully), and then primed a few parts. Need to go back to NAPA for another can of primer, though -- and am also considering whether I should powder coat the rudder horn and rudder horn brace. (More correctly, whether I should farm them out to a shop -- Harbor Freight powdercoat sucks.)

Finally, I clamped a piece of wood to the bench and match drilled it with the trailing edge angle aluminum. Then I started countersinking 3/32" holes in it -- in anticipation of riveting the rudder's trailing edge. The Net is full of various opinions about this particular issue, and I see that others are particularly concerned with making certain that the edge is straight and true. You'll be reading more about this as I continue.

All of the workshop time today was without the neck brace. Karin says that I seem to be hunching forward though, so it's back on again as I post this entry.

Time: 5 hours

Sep 1 -- More Rudder Construction

It's been three weeks since a blog post, with lots of non-building stuff in the middle (surgery, Patrick was ambushed in Namibia, Anna was not having the best of luck in Bolivia, I refinished the deck, etc...)

Nonetheless, I actually worked on the rudder! That includes the day I went in for surgery, the day after I came home, and a lot of other days. Think that the hours worked were much longer than stated below; however I lost track and never got around to blogging. Wearing a neck brace is a pain.

As usual, lots of plastic peeling involved...

I will let the photos speak for themselves. You can see where I had one issue with holes drilled too close to the edge of a trim strip. What you can't see is that I bought another part and promptly repeated the mistake.

Next up is deburring, dimpling, priming, and riveting the silly thing.

Time since last blog post: 8 hours