Rob:

If you have finished the vertical tail, the rudder is next.  Trim those ribs
down until the halves fit properly.  Be sure to measure the thickness of
your vertical tail TE to insure you don't make the rudder LE too thin or
overly fat.  Be sure to build "hats" onto the opposing inside surfaces laid
up with release tape so you can get the halves apart to lay up two bids to
attach the hats to the ribs themselves. It's not hard, but there's a lot of
trimming and fitting and laying up the two bids on the hats and ribs is
close quarters work.

Cheers,
Pete Field
LNC2 std, St. Louis


-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Murawski [mailto:rob@robmurawski.com]
Sent: Friday, July 05, 2013 2:08 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LNC2] Rudder help

I started looking at the rudder halves from my "Super Fast Build" Lancair
360 kit.  I, as far as I can tell, am the first to open these from the
factory packaging in plastic and tape.

When I try to put these halves together, the fit isn't even close.  Now, I
was expecting I'd have to do *some* sanding, but some of these ribs look
like they are way too big.  Picture 1 shows me trying to sandwich the upper
part of the rudder together and it just doesn't even look close.  Picture 2
shows the upper part of the factory-completed half.  I can see that the
foreword rib (in the overhang section) sits outside of the core material and
that rib drops lower where it meets core material, but it still looks like
both parts are too high.  In fact, the foam block is supposed to end up
potted into the core of the opposite rudder half and, clearly, it won't
because it is sitting lower than the rib.

Picture 3 shows the middle rib.  Based on its current shape, the adjoining
half would have a pretty significant bend in it to meet at the trailing
edge.  I just thought the rudder would be more... symmetrical.  I think I am
slightly confused because the contour of the ribs looks like it attempts to
include areas where the core material ends.  Was this to help keep a final
shape or is this a correct dimension?

I went searching for blueprints/dimensions of the rudder and the closest I
found was Blueprint "C" which said it was the "Horiz Stab, Elev Vert Stab,
Rudder, Aft Fslg Bulkheads, BL-35 wing partial rib," but when I look at the
blueprint, there is nothing there for the rudder.

So before I start sanding down these ribs and even the spar in a few spots,
is the fastbuild really this bad or am I clearly doing something wrong
because the fastbuild stuff should fit together?

Thanks,

-Rob


Lancair 360 MkII, 15% complete
Pittsburgh, PA