Mistake discovered

05/01/2009

Empennage

Glued the rudder together and fit the hardware onto it. Discovered a problem with the hinges. First, it won't line up either horizontally or vertically. When I cut the slots, I didn't pay attention to what side of the line I was cutting on. So, one side of the rudder hits differently than on the other side when it goes back and forth. Second, when I drilled for the bolts, I wasn't paying attention to the vertical alignment. Now, the rudder is about a 1/4" too low. To fix the first part, I needed to glue in 1/16" plywood into the slots, re-drill the holes, and then re-cut the slots very carefully watching what side the saw blade is on. I had to make the changes to the vertical stabilizer as the rudder had a diagonal that was in the way of the saw blade. Checked the alignment horizontally and it looks good there. I'll need to think about how to fix the vertical alignment later. I could either fill and the re-drill the bolt holes or add some wood to the top of the rudder. Or, I could just forget the whole thing and hope it's not a problem that the rudder is 1/4" too low on the vertical stabilizer.