Today I started work on adding a skin stiffener to the upper end of the rudder, which is similar to the elevator skin stiffeners. The picture below is a diagram of where this doubler is located. The details for this doubler were provided to me by Mark Frederick and I started with doing some basic […]
F1 Mod – Rudder Spar Stiffener Angle
Today I spent some time working on the rudder. This is one of the F1 Rocket mods needed to strengthen the standard RV-8 rudder. The mod is to add a beefy aluminum angle which is made from 6061-T6, 1 1/2 inch by 2 inch angle, 0.125 inch thick. Here is a diagram of the stiffener […]
Rudder Stiffener Riveting Redux
I recently received the replacement rudder skin for the one that I messed up a few weeks back, while riveting on the stiffener angles. While riveting this one, I made darn sure that the back riveting plate was under where I was riveting. Everything was going great, until I got to the trailing edge. I got […]
Rudder Spar Riveting
This evening I riveted the rudder hinge mounting brackets and reinforcing plates. One item of caution here is just to remember that you will be using longer rivets than are called for in the RV-8 plans. So make sure you check each rivet for the correct length before you start riveting. In the picture below […]