Is the Rudder skin (R-1001) 0.016 thick?

[RV6-KPTW]

I started working the rudder and the skin feels pretty flimsy. It mikes to 0.016. I looked at section 4 and this part number is missing from the list. The Vans store does not list the material spec nor does the inventory sheet.

I just figured I'd ask here rather than waste supports time. They probably have better things to do.

Thanks

 

[iwannarv]

Yes. Very light .016.

 

[Dean Pichon]

My -4 kit (circa 1991) came with 0.016 rudder and elevator skins. Both cracked on my aircraft after several years of flying. I re-built both with 0.020. Three or 4 years ago, I bought a new tail kit in order to get a new elevator skins. The kit shipped with 0.020 skins for both the rudder and the elevators. I was told at that time 0.020 was the standard for these control surfaces. (Buying a whole kit was faster than waiting for skins alone at the time. I sold the rest of the parts so in the end the cost was not unreasonable.)

Lots of folks have reported cracking with 0.016 skins. (Of course, many others have had no issues with 0.016 skins.) I'm not aware of anyone reporting cracking the 0.020 skins.

 

[FMF15E]

New RV-10 kit

I received my empennage kit on Oct 5 2023 and have just started building. My R-1001 is .016. I just finished the rudder last week and agree that they seem pretty thin.

Cheers
FM

 

[RV6-KPTW]

RV14 has .016” skin as well

I went back and checked the RV14 inventory - same .016 skin. It seems to have worked out fine on my 14.

 

[Mark33]

-8 rudder robustness

The .02 skin thickness along with its single sheet/formed trailing edge design, is what makes the 8 rudder so robust. I never really understood why the rest of the RV models didn't follow the 8 rudder design. Is there really that much difference in weight between .016 and .020 that would make an airplane tail heavy if .02 skins were used?

 

[Dean Pichon]

The .02 skin thickness along with its single sheet/formed trailing edge design, is what makes the 8 rudder so robust. I never really understood why the rest of the RV models didn't follow the 8 rudder design. Is there really that much difference in weight between .016 and .020 that would make an airplane tail heavy if .02 skins were used?

I re-built the rudder and both elevators with 0.020 skins and am glad I did. You may find the weight penalty to be more than you thought. For instance, if you roughly estimate each surface of a -4 elevator as 12" x 48" the weight upper is 0.45 lbs per elevator (2 surfaces x 12" x 48" x .004 x .098). So for 2 elevators, you pick up 0.9 lbs. And, now you need more lead to counter balance the thicker skin. So the net increase could be as much as 1.8 pounds. Do the rudder, too, and pick-up another .4 lbs or so and now you have 2 more pounds of weight on the tail wheel.

I switched to a Titanium tail spring which saved about a pound, but I still netted more than a pound extra. (I'm happy to have 0.020 skins, but there is no free lunch.)