Re-balance Using Tungsten Rod

Prefitting VS Before Installing HS - 1

Prefitting VS Before Installing HS - 2

Spar Cap Mod - Bottom of Main VS Spar

Spar Cap Mod - Installed & Bonded to HS

Left Side of VS Bonded to Aircraft

Left Side of VS Bonded to Aircraft. Another thing to consider is a way to close the gap between the top of the HS and the cutout for the HS that you make in the left VS. Ours varied from 0.3 to 0.6". We made a capstrip (a la the old days before fastbuilds!!) on the inside of the VS. We laid up a 2 BID on the inside of VS itself and gently bent it to about 90 degrees toward the centerline of the fuselage. We then set it into position and clecoed it in place on the fuselage. Of course, there was package tape laid down on the HS to release the cap when it cured. We then teased the strip into place from the outside to make a decent 90 degree turn and lay (sag) down on to the HS. All of the strip is on the inside of the VS. When we closed out the left VS, we simply removed the tape, sanded the HS, put a thin coat of flox on the bottom of the cap, floxed up the other areas and put the left VS into place per normal. This added the extra strength of a 2 BID to the left VS-HS joint. The right skin got it because the area was open and accessible. In the manual, it is left off the left side for obvious reasons - you can't get to it. Another benefit to having it is that it forms a dam for adding a good flox bead later to fill the HS-VS gap. When that dries, you add a micro fillet to the area and lay up the BID over the fillet.

Rudder Closeout
Last comment 03/27/04.

Rudder Closeout

Rudder Fitting_1: This is the firsrt of 6 photos of fitting the rudder to the VS. The pictures are annotated to show that the process was complicated by two hinge mis-alignments on the fastbuild tail and the imperfections of the rudder cuff - namely the excessive width where the cuff fits into the TE well of the VS.

Rudder Fitting_2: The fitting process was also hindered by a very sketchy set of instructions in the last section of the fast-build tail supplement. Ron Raby, Bryan Burr, Mike Easley, Mike Salzman, Drew Dickinson and especially Tim Ong filled in the gaps. As always, Steve Richards' web site had good advice on the subject. Thanks, guys!

Rudder Fitting_3

Rudder Fitting_4

Rudder Fitting_5

Rudder Fitting_6

Rudder Cuff - "Micro Layup" 1 Laid out max and min rudder travel lines on both sides of the cuff. Estimated the thickness of the micro that would be needed to close the gaps and laid it out on a piece of plastic sheeting and taped it down to the table. We then put a piece of peel ply down over that, stretched it gently and taped it in place on both ends. We needed a taper from the aft line to the fwd line on the cuff so we laid a piece of 1/8" scrap along the fwd line and a piece of 1/16" HDPE scrap along the other line. We then filled the space between the two pieces, smoothed it down with a trowel and after scoring along the pieces of scrap we took the fences off and took the peel ply with the micro out to the hangar. We had wiped on a thin coating of resin on the cuff and then, keeping the peel ply taught, we flipped it over and laid the thin edge along the aft line on the cuff and the thick side laid down on the fwd line. We gently smoothed the thin side to a taper and using a squeegee, we very gently smoothed out the peel ply. When it dried, we had a nice length of constant cross-sectioned micro along the entire length of the cuff. When we put the rudder on, the gaps were sanded with a thin file to get Tim's "minimum" of 0.080" . The right side was great but we had to do another "micro layup" to close the gap more on about the lower half of the cuff. This method may take a bit more time, but the micro's shape and cross section stay darned close to perfect.

Rudder Cuff - "Micro Layup" 2

Rudder Cuff - "Micro Layup" 3