BAF - Rudder Page

E The rudder is all ready to have its trailing edge riveted. As on the elevator page, riveting these trailing edges is one of the most difficult part to building the airplane. If you are not careful riveting it together you will warp the trailing edge. I bought an extra set of dies for my rivet squeezer and ground a small angle on the face of each so they matched the trailing edge of the rudder. I then partially squeezed every other rivet, removed the clecos and partially squeezed the remaining rivets. In addition, I didn't rivet them in sequence. I would partially squeeze the middle one then do one one either end, then one in between the middle and an end one, etc. until I was finished. Once that was done, I went back and finished squeezing each of them in the same order I partially squeezed them. Yes, it took some time but it was worth it. (7/10/03)

F Building one of the few taildragger RV-9's has some drawbacks. One of which is the limited instructions regarding putting the small wheel on the aft end. The instructions tell you to fit the rudder bottom, which I dutifully did and then realized the thing would interfere with the tail wheel spring. In checking around I found that a number of RV-7 and the few RV-9 builders resolved this issue in one of two ways. For those who like working with fiber glass they cut the bottom fairing off and reshaped it to avoid the spring. Builders like me that don't know enough about fiber glass to love or hate it just simply tapered the thing so it is shorter at the forward end. In this picture I show it clecoed in place. My original thought was to plate nut it so I could have access to the tail light but that may change. (5/26/06)

E Rather than install external rudder gust stops, I bought one made of Delrin from Jeff Bordelon. Jeff has a lot of great ideas and his web site is recommended reading. (4/26/06)

F When fitting the elevator and rudder caps I found they were just a bit to short, say about an 1/8" or so. In the case of the rudder cap. I fit it as best I could, knowing I can build it up as needed. (6/24/06)

E Building up the rudder tip is straightforward. The trick is to go to your local hardware store and purchase one sheet of blue Dow Styrofoam, cut a small section of it to match the tip, scuff sand the jelcoat off the end of the rudder cap, epoxy the Styrofoam on the end. Don't worry about the excess, this stuff sands easily. (6/24/06)

F Using a hacksaw blade, cut off any excess Styrofoam. Cleco the cap back on the rudder and sand to fit. I timed myself and the sanding portion took less than three minutes. Once shaped to size, there are two options, either lay some glass over it or smear it with a mix of epoxy and micro balloons. Since this is not a load bearing structure, I just used the epoxy / micro balloon mix and sanded it down. This process was repeated three or four times until I was happy with the fit and finish.

The same process was used on the elevator caps. (6/24/06)

E After the epoxy / micro balloon mix hardened it was sanded down and a piece of fiberglass cloth was laid on the trailing edge to build it up. When that hardened a layer of epoxy / micro balloons was smoothed over the top. You guessed it, when that hardens it will be sanded smooth. This process may take a few repetitions until it is completely smooth but when finished you will never know it was built up. (6/26/06)