Day 2 started with continuing to assemble the rudder skeleton. The next step was to cleco the rudder horn to the bottom rib and drill out all the holes.
The front flange of the bottom rib slides inside the spar between the spar and the doublers and was drilled and cleco’d to the spar. Next up I marked the centre lines on all flanges and edges on the ribs so that they can used to align the parts horizontally with the spar and the skin. Rear ribs 2,3, 4, and the nose rib were then attached to the spar by first clamping in place, aligning the centre line through the pre-drilled holes then more drilling and cleco’ing in place.
The tip rib attaches to the spar via a bent strip. To prepare this I marked and drilled holes in the strip and then clamped this to the tip rib and drilled the attachment holes. Rivet holes were drilled through the bent strip to the spar and both strip and tip rib cleco’d to the spar.
(not sure why I look so out of it in that picture!)
With this, the skeleton is fully assembled and ready for disassembly for deburring the drill holes and applying primer.
I am off to England for two weeks so we’ll pick up the work when I get back. I’m enjoying it so far.
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