Van's RV-9A in Aurora

The Big Picture

The Big Picture
Flying! 8/28/2011

Saturday, March 1, 2008

2.6 hrs and 79 rivets

Riveted the counterbalance rib to the main spar.

Riveted the counterbalance skin to the rib.

Installed and torqued the counterbalance weight into the counter balance rib. Lynne helped with this. Had to use a C clamp to press the lead weight all the way in. It was hung up with the tight clearance after the rivets were set.

Then clecoed both skins to the frame.

Finished riveting counterbalance skin to spar and rudder skin.

Riveted tip rib into the assembly. Used blind rivets for the last hole on each side. This requires drilling out to 7/64.

After a break, discovered I forgot to put the bottom cap attach strips into the clecoed assembly. You might have noticed in the previous pictures. Fortunately, I had resisted the strong urge to set rivets in the bottom rib, so all that was needed was to remove all the clecoes and put the attach strips in. No loose parts left over after that!

After clecoing the trailing edge together, the rudder begins to assume its final form. It's looking very good.