Empennage

I worked some on the trailing edge of the rudder today. I went to the hardware store and came up with a 6' piece of angle aluminum that had 1" angles and 1/8" thick. I laid out the rudder on the angle and drilled and cleco'd the trailing edge to it. Once I had everything aligned I took it apart and cleaned all the surfaces really well with Naptha. I had Donna helping with this next step because I didn't have enough hands and coordination to do it alone. We spread a thin coat of epoxy on the rudder skin and also the AEX wedge. We cleco'd everything together using a pattern of inserting cleco's to make sure the trailing edge of the rudder was staying straight with the rigid angle aluminum. I was satisfied with the way it looked when we finished up. After about 30 minutes or so I wiped up the excess epoxy that squeezed out when we cleco'd the assembly together. That's the way I plan to leave it for the next 30 days so it will cure out and set up well. Also, since I'm leaving for my 28 day hitch in Africa tomorrow I won't have a chance to do anything anyway. I'm sure that when I get back next month it will be set up well and should hold the 'straight' trailing edge when I do the double flush riveting.

2 Hours

Total hours on project = 104