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12:40

30.6

(Click thumbnail for enlargment)

30.583

10/22/02

Rudder kit arrived on the front porch today. My daughter and I carried the small crate inside, and retrieved the manual for the first read. The photo to the right is from the Zenith Web site and is for motivational purposes only! (http:www.zenithair.com) (Click on the thumb-nail for the full size photo.)

1:00

0

10/24/02

Built log spread sheet and modified my existing web site to accommodate the log updates. It seem that it is possible to link to spreadsheet HTML output, but it is cumbersome. It looks like it may be necessary to upgrade my web building capability to a new program.

0:30

0

10/25/02

Modify log spread sheet. Still not happy with results. Sounds like money. Photos won't display on the spreadsheet output after the site is compiled.

0:20

0

10/27/02

Finally inventoried the kit today. All parts and tools ordered are present. The vertical tail horn (6T5-3), however, has a sizable scratch and gouge in it where it was bent, and scratches on a front corner. My digital camera doesn’t do a good job up close, but locations are annotated on the photo.

0:20

0

11/01/02

Took a day of leave today to help EAA 776 with a Young Eagle's rally at the municipal airport open house (at FHU). Took the vertical tail horn along and unanimous opinion was that it wouldn't hurt to replace the part or buff the marks out with a scotch-brite pad. I elected for the pad technique since this part is 0.125 thick. It took a lot of scrubbing, but the gouges have been reduced to barely visible marks-- enough that they can't be detected with a finger nail.

0:45

0.75

11/09/02

Finally did some real work on the vertical spar today making the initial angle cuts at the end of the doublers. Angle is a little off, about 22 or 23 deg instead of the specified 27 deg. It is close enough that I should be able to sand it into the correct position. Determined that the angle wasn't quite right, so made a paper template for the 27 deg angle and use a small tungsten file to adjust the cuts on both spar doublers. Too bad they didn't throw a small piece of scrap in the box to practice on first..... The project is still in my den. Having just moved, the garage/shop area is not yet up to speed. I also junked my original web site. Importing it into Excel didn't work well- could look at it, but had trouble editing the links and displaying some of the pictures. So, will start over with a new home page for this log. Also worked on designing a new home page to go in front of this log book.

0:50

1:30

1.5

11/11/02

No airplane work today, but finished rebuilding the web site to reside entirely in an MS Excel spreadsheet. Upload sizes are larger because it generates an XML site, but it is more capable than the old program I was using (WebEasy) and does math on top of that. Checked the load time of the page over a modem today, and it was very slow, so compressed all the images on the page to see it would significantly improve loading times.

1:00

0

11/17/02

Converted web page to thumb-nail photos to improve load time. Compressing the images didn't help much.

0:15

0

11/29/02

Worked on marking out rivet locations on the vertical spar doubler. Didn't know that drawing a straight line in tight confines of the spar doubler could be so tough. Marked all rivet location on the doubler and marked rib locations.

1:15

1.25

11/31/02

Marked rib rivet locations on the spar.

0:10

0.166667

12/25/02

Christmas Day. Drilled rudder spar. Estimate time spent, lots of interruptions. No major problems other than having trouble getting the bit to hold tight enough in one of those chuckless drills. I think I prefer the old type with the chuck key!

2:00

2

12/26/02

Prep work to install rear rib #1. Fit isn't quite right on the angles of the spar doublers. It is necessary to take about 1mm of material off of the end of the double so that when RR 1 contacts the end of the doubler, it also fits flush on the doubler angle.

0:30

0.5

12/28/02

Fitting RR #1 to spar doublers and removing gum labels- "Goobgone" works great.

0:45

0.75

12/30/02

Marked RR #1 rivet locations. Updated and posted log.

0:20

0:10

0.166667

01/01/03

Drilled RR #1. Meeting edge distance requirements for all the overlapping parts was a bit of a challenge. I also reached a significant milestone today by screwing up my first part. I blocked and clamped RR #2 into the spar, marked and drilled. Two gotchas: The drill bit rotated the rib slightly as it went through and I didn't notice and the rib was not centered left to right resulting in one hole through the rib about 4mm from the edge, and the likelihood the rib would cause a skin bulge on one side of the rudder and an indentation on the other. Hmmm, maybe I can make a bar-b-que implement out of it....

1:10

1.166667

01/03/03

I called Zenith this afternoon to re-order rear rib # 2 (6T4-7 ). The were most helpful and will ship the part Monday.

0:05

0

01/05/03

Drilled RR #3 and #4, and the nose rib.

0:20

0.333333

01/15/03

Re-drilled RR#2.

0:15

0.25

01/18/03

It's been a crazy couple of weeks at work. Finally got out to unpack the garage and set up the shop. Got about 80% finished, but took most of the day. Have had stuff in storage for about 5 years while we were in Europe. I think I'm missing some stuff. All the big items are there, but can't find some smaller bits. Evening, went to mount the tip rib and discovered that the angel bracket is too short in overall length, especiall in the side that goes on the top of the spar. Can't get 4 rivets in it and come anywhere close to maintaining edge distance or rivet spacing standards. It's also a holiday weekend so Zenith is closed. Put a net call out to the Chapter (EAA 776) for some scrap .025 so I can make a new bracket.

7:00

0:20

0.333333

01/21/03

Got an email back from Zenith this morning with the guidance that only two rivets per side are required on the angle bracket to the tip rib. Ok, use the piece of scrap 0.025 I picked up this morning to put in a couple of practice rivets. Now sweat (or so I thought). Disassembled everything and finished depuring holes. Re- assembled the frame with clecos, and proceded to get a tilted head on the first rivet I pulled. Used the scrap to practice drilling out a rivet, then drilled the real thing. Proceded to rivet together the entire frame- took a little over an hour of leasurely work. Looks like I have a couple more tilted rivet heads- will inspect it next work session and replace any that look a little suspect. With a little imagination it now looks like an airplane part!

1:00

2:00

2

01/26/03

Drilled and replaced 4 rivets in the rudder skeleton that weren't quite up to par- had lightly tilted shop heads where it was possble to get a finger nail under one edge. Also upacked the skin for the first time and it has a small dent about 5mm in from the bend, near the top! Carefully worked most of it out, but there is still a small depresion about the diameter of a pencil eraser. Don't think it is enough to replace the skin. Can be corrected when painting, I think. Layed out rivet lines top, bottom, rib edges, and RR 3 & 4 on one side of rudder.

3:00

3

02/15/03

Set up the rudder jig, finished marking rivet lines and drilled one side of the rudder. Once on the jig, it is apparent that I will have to trim a little off the bottom edge of one side of the skin before drilling the other side.

2:00

2

2/15/2003 to 2/19/03

Marked out rivet lines and pre-drilled the skin. Marked rib center lines. Layed out jig w/ 2x2 square fence posts.

1:30

1.5

2/20/03 to 2/23/03

Drilled both sides of the rudder while on the jig. Drilled pilot holes on the spar line except for the rib intersections where full size holes drilled. Disassembled and deburred all holes. Will need to do some minor edge trimming.

3:30

3.5

03/19/03

Filing and fitting of rear skin.

0:15

0.25

03/20/03

Trimmed and fit rear skin. Final fit and cleco'd into place. See photo>>>

0:30

0.5

Fit and drilled nose rudder nose skin. AHHHH! Disaster! Two problems, the skin was not far enough toward the top of the rudder, and was probably too small to begin with. I drilled the nose skin without removing it from the underlap with the rear skin to verify that I met the edge distance. It's not even close. Edge distance on both sides ranges between 3 and 5 mm.

1:30

1.5

Go to the get help mode. Order new skin. Talked to my EAA Tech Counselor…...

0

04/01/03

Fitting day for the new nose skin to arrive via UPS….

0

04/10/03

EAA TC visit to review the nose skin goof and examine work to date. Fitted new nose skin- looks to be a much better fit than the original.

0

04/12/03

Re-drilled nose skin. Have a conflict between the bottom edge of the skin and a rivet hole in the spar (bisects the hole). Will trim the skin to clear the rivet and add a rivet up the spar.

2:00

2

04/13/03

Layed out and drilled lower nose rib rivet line. Trimmed edge of nose skin to fit and filed smooth. Marked and trimmed top of nose skin to fit top rib.

2:30

2.5

04/14/03

Drilled about a dozen holes (last of them) at 0530 this morning over a cup a coffee. Progress is progess.

0:10

0.166667

04/14/03 - 04/19/03

Drilled final few holes. Dissassembled entire rudder and deburred all holes. Rivetted together. Final rudder looks pretty good. Now have an real live airplane part on hand. Now on to the horizontal stab and elevator….

2:30

2.5

03/30/05

Redux: Hauling the rudder all over the country has produced some damage on the coners of the skins at the bottom of the rudder-- where one leaves the rivets out for later. It tends to get snagged on things. Use some of that foam packing material that comes with electronics and make covers to fit over the bottem ends of the rudder. If done right, it also doubles as a stand.

0:30

0.5