Rudder skin woes

[543TB]

Still waiting to hear back from Van's, but our speedy tail build came to a screeching halt when we went to put structure to skin. At first it seems like a mis-drill issue but now it feels more like the trailing edge fold is off. All the holes at the top and 98% of the spar holes line up but if you force the bottom rib to match the skin, this is the result... Definitely a head-scratcher if this is "normal". Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[TShort]

I literally just finished riveting mine. Holes lined up and no issues with the TE.

On the right side, the aft-most hole for my bottom rib to skin looks to be exactly 2.25” from the trailing edge.

 

[543TB]

I literally just finished riveting mine. Holes lined up and no issues with the TE.

On the right side, the aft-most hole for my bottom rib to skin looks to be exactly 2.25” from the trailing edge.

Are they the same on both sides? I just went out and measured and the left side is 2.25 from center of hole to trailing edge, but the right side is 1/8th of an inch closer from hole to edge.

 

[rvbuilder2002]

Still waiting to hear back from Van's, but our speedy tail build came to a screeching halt when we went to put structure to skin. At first it seems like a mis-drill issue but now it feels more like the fold in the trailing edge fold is off. All the holes at the top and 98% of the spar holes line up but if you force the bottom rib to match the skin, this is the result... Definitely a head-scratcher if this is "normal". Anyone else experiencing this?
View attachment 118891

Note how the aft most rivet in the rib on each side of the rudder are staggered in position relative to each other?
This is so that the Rivets don’t interfere with each other.
I don’t know what the bending reference for this part is, but I have a feeling that when the trailing edge bend was done, the wrong side of the skin was referenced against the stops in the press break, which resulted in the bend center line being in the wrong place.
I’m sure Vans will replace the skin.

 

[543TB]

Note how the aft most rivet in the rib on each side of the rudder are staggered in position relative to each other?
This is so that the Rivets don’t interfere with each other.
I don’t know what the bending reference for this part is, but I have a feeling that when the trailing edge bend was done, the wrong side of the skin was referenced against the stops in the press break, which resulted in the bend center line being in the wrong place.
I’m sure Vans will replace the skin.

That makes sense, looking at it and measuring the staggered holes in the rib. Thank you.

 

[TShort]

Are they the same on both sides? I just went out and measured and the left side is 2.25 from center of hole to trailing edge, but the right side is 1/8th of an inch closer from hole to edge.

I can check tomorrow, already walked back in from the shop. But I agree - what Scott said makes sense.

 

[Alphalpha]

Still waiting to hear back from Van's, but our speedy tail build came to a screeching halt when we went to put structure to skin. At first it seems like an mis-drill issue but now it feels more like the trailing edge fold is off. All the holes at the top and 98% of the spar holes line up but if you force the bottom rib to match the skin, this is the result... Definitely a head-scratcher if this is "normal". Anyone else experiencing this?
View attachment 118891

That’s the automatic rudder trim feature to correct for P factor and thrust line asymmetry.