Before I dive into this latest post, some of you may realize that I am starting to play around with the formatting of my blog site. So far my experience with using blogger.com as the host of my Airplane building activities has been awesome. There are some issues with uploading photos that are more of a nuisance than anything else, so I don't mind it too much. The only thing I really don't like at this point is that I selected a custom layout for my blog, and as a result I have absolutely no control over the dimensions of the site layout. To better understand what I am talking about, just visit Ron's blog site and note how his layout is much different than mine. I am still playing around with some things, but hopefully it won't cause too much confusion for anyone trying to read the blog posts or to find some useful info.
I added a mock up drawing of an RV-8 to the top of the blog with some color combos I was interested in playing around with, added some gadgets to allow keyword searching, and started organizing sections in the blog using a common category or label. Just wish I could change the real estate around a bit, but I think I am SOL on that front. Oh well, such is life I guess.
Time to immortalize Steve Riffe, a fellow RV-8 builder down in Texas who is doing a very nice job on his build. He sent me some additional pics of his rudder to help me better understand the methods I need to employ to successfully bend the trailing edge of the rudder, and to demonstrate what the final radius should be after the bend is complete. Looks like I am basically looking for about an 1/8 inch inside radius. The charts and formulas for bending metal in AC 43 are great for bends up to about 90 degrees, but they don't really give you much info for angles beyond that. Since the trailing edges of the rudders and elevators produce an inside angle between the top and bottom skins that is somewhere between 155 - 170 degrees, and since Vans does NOT provide any info in the plans for the final bend radius to expect, you are left feeling a little unsure about everything. Thanks Steve, for helping me out with this.
Anyway, tonight I spent some time grinding/polishing down the stiffeners for the right side of the rudder a bit more, because even though I followed Vans instructions very closely to mark and cut them out from the aluminum angle that they provide, it looked as though some of the perpendicular trailing edges of the stiffeners were still about 1/8 inch or so high, which is about the same radius that the final bend of the rudder will be. This basically means that when the rudder is bent, at best, the stiffeners will be touching the skin at the trailing edge, and at worst, they will be too wide for the trailing edge.
Either condition is undesireable, since it may result in a damaged rudder skin, either through vibration over time, or by damage incurred when the bend is applied. All perpendicular stiffener trailing edges are now closer to 3/32 inch high, which is where I want them to be. I also spent time trimming more vinyl covering from the left side of the rudder along the stiffener holes. I have also decided to use the 7220 primer on most of the rudder parts except for the forward spar and end ribs to save some prep time.
The temps were starting to fall below freezing in the garage, and I was also starting to accidentally burn the insulation of the wiring on my soldering iron that I use to trim the vinyl, so I decided to call it a night, before I really screwed something up. We just had 6 inches of snow here over the weekend, and we are gearing up for another 6 inches on Tuesday next week. Winter has definitely arrived. My goal is to finish the rudder and both elevators by the end of this month. Way too agressive I think, but we'll see......
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