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R-716 Fairing Attachment at the bottom of the rudder.

bob865

Well Known Member
Made my first glaring mistake on the plane that I'm not sure how to fix. I'm working on the rudder and has to fabricate the R-716 rudder bottom attach strips. Well I measured wrong and they are about two inches too short. The problem is I don't have enough material left to fabricate new ones of the right length. I know I can order more, but looking at what these attach strips do, I think I can make it work. I cut the fabricated ones so that the end fell between two rivets and cut an additional piece to fill in the difference. Pics are attached. I need to deburr and clean it up, but the idea is circled in the pic.

Asking the more experienced Vans community....Do you agree with my assessment?
 

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Given how early you are in the build, and how easy and cheap the part is to replace, why even bother trying to fix it? Order some more Aluminium, and add that stuff to your pile of scrap material for later use.

You could probably make some more from the trim bundle that’s included with the empennage kit. I’m not sure if it’s long enough, but it’s worth checking.
 
Sure it may be a little early in the build to be satisfied with a minor mistake like that, but given that its job is to hold a fairing, I think your solution is fine. You could even take another step and make a doubler to span across the gap and tie the two pieces together but that's probably overkill.
 
Scrap parts

I think it would probably be fine too, but why not borrow some scrap from a local builder and re-doo?
 
Based on messing up the same parts on my rudder, and for the job they do, I think you'd be fine with your patch. But I am not an engineer. I also think I didn't want to set the tone for my build that way, and spent less than $10 for new metal to remake them correctly (spoiler, I have a local supply house).
 
I looked at your kit log. You are moving right along. These are the type of “what’s good enough” questions you are going to have to make all the time.
Good luck!
Mike
 
Made my first glaring mistake on the plane that I'm not sure how to fix. I'm working on the rudder and has to fabricate the R-716 rudder bottom attach strips. Well I measured wrong and they are about two inches too short. The problem is I don't have enough material left to fabricate new ones of the right length. I know I can order more, but looking at what these attach strips do, I think I can make it work. I cut the fabricated ones so that the end fell between two rivets and cut an additional piece to fill in the difference. Pics are attached. I need to deburr and clean it up, but the idea is circled in the pic.

Asking the more experienced Vans community....Do you agree with my assessment?

I found that I had to purchase extra aluminum sheets in 0.032" and 0.025" from Aircraft Spruce to fix mistakes like this. They also come handy at the later stage of your build when you need to build parts that are different than in the plan, such as avionic shelf.
 
I suggest you leave it as is for now and continue on. Order in a bit of .025 & .032 sheet as is always nice to a bit extra. Come back to it & the fairing later when you have decided what type of tail lamp you will be mounting in the fairing, as you will find that you have to trim the rear end of those strips to make room for the tail lamp/strobe housing.
 
Thanks to everyone for the feedback. Most of your mirrored what was actually in my mind that I hated to have an "error" this early in the project. Setting the tone for the project if you will. I set the rudder aside and ordered some extra material including some extra in addition to the extra to have on hand for future "oops" moments. Switched my focus to the elevator.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
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