The main focus for this weekend was riveting the trailing edges of the rudder.
The plans suggest partially riveting every 10th hole, then flip over to do the other side. The whole purpose is to keep the edge as straight as possible. Here the first back rivet is about to be set.
One side has been partially set, rivets for the other side are now inserted.
All done. If you notice the whole edge is fairly straight, thought the skin between rivets seems a bit wavy. I am not sure this was caused by my technique from over-driving the back rivets, or because the AEX extrusion had big gaps between the rivet holes. Either way to outcome was good (only one smiley location on the entire trailing edge).
The rudder cap is called for in Section 12, but I still have to fix 5-8 rivets on the counterweight spars. In the meantime I trimmed down the fiberglass cap to fit inside the rib flanges.
Here the cap is dry fitted to the rib flange and aligned with the trailing edge. Next step is drill out with a #40 bit.
The rudder cap here is drilled and clecoed into position. That’s it for the time being on the cap. Later in the build I will final drill to #30 size, countersink the fiberglass piece, and dimple the rudder skin in preparation for LP3-3 blind rivet.