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Tuesday, 21Sep99, 0.5 hours - Rudder kit arrives. I opened it for
inventory, but couldn't find a packing list. After e-mailing shipping for the
list, I watched the video & studied the manual. This gave me a good idea
what to expect in the box, so I unpacked & sorted through the parts &
supplies. The famous 'parts box' was nowhere to be found, so I made one up to
keep order in what could easily become chaos. There is an awful lot of stuff
in that little box!
Wednesday, 22Sep99, 1.0 - Set up cloth cutting area. I'm using a 36 x 60
inch cutting mat from the local fabric store. It's placed on one of my
existing benches against a wall, and I may need to relocate once I start
using a full roll. Cut cloth for practice layup, which I'll do as three layer
instead of 2 so I can cut the counterweight bulkhead (assuming success with
the layup). It looks like my cheap postal scale won't be accurate enough, so
I've borrowed a proper balance & ordered an O'house Scout 400 from
weigh.net. Also ordered a rivet squeezer with 3" yoke from Avery. I
tried Aircraft Spruce first, but neither they nor I knew how to choose rivet
sets. The folks at Avery said they knew what a Glasair needed & spec'd
the sets right away.
 Thursday, 23Sep99,
2.5 - Promoted resin according to the manual, then laid the practice piece.
Still a bit intimidated by the commitment of sizing the rudders, so I started
in on the hinge. The manual suggests drilling in place, but this seems a recipe
for a wavy line of rivets. Cut it to length & pilot drilled the hinge.
Since I don't know if the hinge will be painted later, I washed off the mfg.
marks with acetone. Received the inventory list from Ru in shipping.
Everything was shipped except clecos, one of each instead of one 10-pack of
each, & the parts box. The box was left out to keep the shipment from
being delayed (I'd asked them to rush it a bit). Clecos promised asap.
Friday, 24Sep99, 2.7 - Started fitting the rudder halves together. The manual
suggests fitting the perimeter prior to sizing the shearweb, but this left
much of the curved edges from the mold in place. I sized the shearweb first,
and then the rest went more smoothly. Using Permagrit sanding tools on the
advice of a Europa builder, and I'm delighted with how well they work. Also
cut ribs & applied Q-cell. Practice layup had one area good enough for
the bulkhead, but was otherwise full of bubbles & brush bristles. Cut the
brush down to about 3/4 inch and made a few more practice lay-ups, with much
better success.
Saturday, 25Sep99, 3.2 - Finished fitting rudder halves. Bonded hinge
reinforcement, cut cloth for actuator rib, fabricated hinge retainer &
trim tab. I'll be riveting the hinge sooner than expected, so I borrowed some
clecos & a rivet gun.
 Sunday, 26Sep99, 6.2 -
Bedded & riveted hinge. Bonded & laid up the actuator rib. Had a
devil of a time with the layup, with the layup not wanting to lay down in the
corner and bits of cloth coming off & fouling the brush. A few hours later
I realized that I had not cut the cloth on the bias. (Called S-H the next day
& found that cutting those particular pieces on the bias was not for
structural reasons. The real reason is to keep the cloth from fraying & to
get it to lay in the corner more easily, the same lessons I'd just learned!
Also laid out ribs A, B & C.
 Monday, 27Sep99, 3.5
- Bedded actuator, drilled for nutplates, bonded shearweb extension, fit
& bonded ribs. When bonding ribs, I taped about 1/4-inch out from hinge
location to ease cleanup. To my dismay, that was to close, and removing the
tape tore loose the edge of the q-cell radius. Probably not important, but I
added a bit of q-cell to re-work the radius. Will mask further back in the
future. Fit the conduit. Pulling the conduit back to the shearweb extension
caused it  to break out of the
end of the A rib. I fixed this tearout with a small block of rib foam, and
then routed the conduit, passing about 1-inch away from the shearweb. Pulled
a small fish wire to ease pulling light wires.
Tuesday, 28Sep99, 2.5 - Countersunk rivet holes with a reground drill bit.
A few spins by hand did the trick. Riveted nutplates & attached actuator.
Pop-riveted hinge retainer. Used a bit of hinge scrap to make a pop-rivet
extension, as the holes were too close to the other leg of the angle for my
gun head to fit. Trimmed left skin to clear the actuator, then sanded all
areas for closeout bonding.
 Thursday, 30Sep99,
1.7 - Inspected work against manual prior to close. Conduit would hold water
at low spot once mounted, so I drilled a 1/16-inch hole in the low spot.
Bonded skin then prepped for shearweb layup.
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