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Rudder repair

M5fly

Well Known Member
Landed on the grass at 6S6 this weekend and the woop-dee-doos on landing roll out kicked the nose up causing a minor tail strike. The tail tie-down hook took most of the force but it did still cause a little damage to the fiberglass fairing and popped a rivet loose. My initial thought is to do a little fiberglass work to repair the fairing and install a new rivet as a temporary fix. There doesn't appear to be any internal structural damage, just limited to the skin and fairing. Maybe when I have a few weeks of time I don't want to be in the air later this year I can reskin and paint the rudder as the proper permanent solution. Thoughts?

BTW, I think I learned why people don't often take the -A on backcountry strips!
 

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Cole
I suggest you give Vans a call, show them the pictures & see what they think. The lower rib/skin cut out/trailing edge/tail lamp mount on your rudder is a bit different from most RV rudders (& plans), they could advise what best course of action you could take.
 
"That'll buff right out..."

Seriously, remove the rudder and inspect the rear spar of the vertical stabilizer, the forward spar attach to horizontal stab front spar attachment, and the horizontal stab front spar to fuselage attach points.
 
Sorry to hear about that!

Thoughts? :-

Check the bearings and hinge points as they would've taken some side force.
Check with Vans on how to deal with the tear in the skin and whether it is still safe to fly.

It may be easier to just build a new rudder rather than try to drill out the rivets and match drill the thin stiffeners and the spar to a new skin.
 
Thanks for the tips so far. I've sent an email to Van's as well so we'll see what they say. I also had the thought that building an entirely new rudder might be easier than trying to re-skin the existing one. Maybe it's a chance to see how much I enjoy building? ;)
 
I keep my tail tie-down ring in place for fear of tail strikes. While I haven't hit the tail in operation, I have tipped on the tail while loading. The ring saved me from a damaged rudder.
 
Seriously, remove the rudder and inspect the rear spar of the vertical stabilizer, the forward spar attach to horizontal stab front spar attachment, and the horizontal stab front spar to fuselage attach points.

ditto for this comment
 
I keep my tail tie-down ring in place for fear of tail strikes. While I haven't hit the tail in operation, I have tipped on the tail while loading. The ring saved me from a damaged rudder.

I may replace my current tie-down ring with a slightly longer one that would hopefully prevent this in the future. It definitely was a rudder saver in this case.
 
I may replace my current tie-down ring with a slightly longer one that would hopefully prevent this in the future. It definitely was a rudder saver in this case.

The 6 tiedown ring is welded on to a relatively thin piece of SS and bolted to an even thinner piece of aluminum. A longer arm on this ring could create enough leverage to bend it if you happen to drag it. Might be easier to repair the F/G fairing than a bent bulkhead.

Food for thought.

Larry
 
The 6 tiedown ring is welded on to a relatively thin piece of SS and bolted to an even thinner piece of aluminum. A longer arm on this ring could create enough leverage to bend it if you happen to drag it. Might be easier to repair the F/G fairing than a bent bulkhead.

Food for thought.

Larry

That's a good point. I heard back from Van's and they said the fiberglass repair should be straightforward and not add sufficient weight to cause an issue. They did, however suggest that I replace the skin sooner rather than later to prevent the risk of flutter at the trailing edge no matter how good my repair may be.

So... anyone have a rudder they're willing to part with that accommodates the light on the bottom fairing? Otherwise I'll likely build a new one.
 
If the top of your rudder looks like the ends of the elevator then you have a counterweighted rudder...
 

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Then you still have the original style RV 6 rudder.

Many 6s have been upgraded to the later style counterbalanced units----which are actually from the 7 or 8----I forget which. Or, maybe they are the same??
 
Then you still have the original style RV 6 rudder.

Many 6s have been upgraded to the later style counterbalanced units----which are actually from the 7 or 8----I forget which. Or, maybe they are the same??

The rudder whose name shall not be spoken :)
 
Then you still have the original style RV 6 rudder.

Many 6s have been upgraded to the later style counterbalanced units----which are actually from the 7 or 8----I forget which. Or, maybe they are the same??

When upgrading you would replace both the rudder and vertical stabilizer (and maybe the empennage fairing)? Is there anything else to consider for that? Though that may add more cost and time than I'm willing to shell out at the moment.
 
When upgrading you would replace both the rudder and vertical stabilizer (and maybe the empennage fairing)? Is there anything else to consider for that? Though that may add more cost and time than I'm willing to shell out at the moment.

I suspect it may require both, or at least a new cap for the V stab.

However, I have never done this, so I am not the person to direct you in this.

I suspect someone who has actually done the change/upgrade will jump in sometime.

Or, better still, just contact the factory and ask them.
 
Hi Cole,

Just saw this thread - sorry to hear about the tail strike! But there is always something to work on.....

We definitely want to have a good look at the vertical stab spar while the rudder is off for repair, just make sure it (or the hinges) aren’t bent. As to building a counterbalanced tail or staying the way it is, that’s up to you - but I also suspect that means a new vertical stab, and as we’ve talked about, the only real downside to the non-counterbalanced tail is that isn’t an airplane that most would want to spin.

But since spins weren’t really something you wanted to do anyway, it probably doesn’t make much difference, so its really a question of how much work you want to do.

But yeah - you really want to build the new rudder and at least carefully inspect the vertical stab spar before we do the aerobatic sign-off!

Paul
 
Building an original (un-counter balanced) rudder is quite a bit of work.... the original kit had no pre-punched parts so all work was done to the tolerance level attainable with a tape measure, and the two parts (vertical stab and rudder) were built to fit each other.
For this reason it is a totally by chance to have a rudder built for a different airplane fit one needing a replacement.

The reasons mentioned above are also why reskinning the substructure (not all that hard actually, if an angle drill is available) vs totally replacing a rudder is a good way to go.

If a decision is made to switch to the counter balanced rudder, it does require replacing both the rudder and vertical stabilizer, which are the exact same assemblies used on the RV-8. So if those parts were purchased already built, they could be used. They are built from pre-punched parts so the rudder build would be much easier than it would be to build a new original version but it would require building the vertical as well.

The one thing to keep in mind about making the switch to the counter balanced rudder is that the counter balance rudder / stab is heavier. This is generally not a problem with an RV-6(A) that has a metal prop (fixed or constant speed) but it will have an undesirable effect on one with a light weight fixed pitch prop.
 
Hi Cole,

Just saw this thread - sorry to hear about the tail strike! But there is always something to work on.....

We definitely want to have a good look at the vertical stab spar while the rudder is off for repair, just make sure it (or the hinges) aren’t bent. As to building a counterbalanced tail or staying the way it is, that’s up to you - but I also suspect that means a new vertical stab, and as we’ve talked about, the only real downside to the non-counterbalanced tail is that isn’t an airplane that most would want to spin.

But since spins weren’t really something you wanted to do anyway, it probably doesn’t make much difference, so its really a question of how much work you want to do.

But yeah - you really want to build the new rudder and at least carefully inspect the vertical stab spar before we do the aerobatic sign-off!

Paul

If only I didn't create more work for myself, lol. I did remove the rudder and empennage fairing last night and inspected all the spars, attach points, hinges, rod ends, etc and there is no damage to any of those. I went ahead and ordered a new rudder kit (currently backordered) and I think we've come up with a repair to keep me flying in the mean time.

On the bright side, it should give me more time to go get some aerobatic training and experience the joys of building non pre-punched parts... Maybe it's an excuse to come over for a ride in the -8 too ;)
 
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