After over 6 months of postponing the rolling of the rudder leading edges, we finally did it (following the rolling of the elevator leading edges):
Rolling the leading edges
Rolling the leading edges (pipe + improvised extension with lever)
and riveted it:
Completed rudder, with rolled and riveted leading edges
The last remaining step was attaching the counterweight, which involves bending the skin around it:
Bent skins around the counterweight
then securing it with screws:
Installed counterweight
Installed counterweight
With this, the rudder itself is complete!
Now to the one gotcha - I had installed a nutplate on the vertical stabilizer to attach the bonding strap. When I did a test fit between the rudder and the VS, however, it became clear that the clearance between the two is not enough for the screw and washers required :/
Not enough clearance for the bonding strap screw :/
Technically I only have to worry about this in the "Empennage Assembly" section, but the two solutions I see are to either open up the VS again and install a nut plate closer to the attachment gap (though it doesn't seem to have enough room anyway) or to remove a small section of the rolled leading edge to allow the clearance required. It seems Mouser went with the latter (per "29 Nov 2009" post).
Time lapse:
Total rudder time: 53.9h Total rudder rivets: 503 Total empennage time: 496h Total empennage rivets: 3707
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