Empennage - More Rudder/VS Work

Started the evening by running my conduit line through the VS skeleton and fabricating two small brackets to hold the conduit in place between the lightening holes of the VS nose ribs. I forgot to take a picture of them, but they came out pretty good! This conduit will allow me to run lighting and/or antenna wires up to the top fairing of the VS if need be. I also installed a doubler in the top rib of the VS where the conduit terminates to strengthen that area. I primed all the newly made parts and riveted them all into place. The final thing I did to the VS before putting on the skin was to install a grounding nut plate, in case I decide to add static wicks (still undecided on that).

Next was the rudder. We got through the first 4 or 5 riveting steps in section 7, up to the back-riveting of the rudder skins. I'm saving that until after we get completely done with the VS, which is looking like it should be tomorrow. The rudder pieces went together fairly well, and we also added the grounding nut plate in about the same position of the rudder spar. The end of tonight's work on the rudder brought us here:

Sarah getting some more experience bucking rivets... she's doing great!

The control horn/bottom rib riveted together, and rudder spar with doublers and nut plates installed. Looking good so far!

The last thing I did tonight was start work on attaching the VS skin. I had been putting this task off because I wanted to make sure I had done everything I needed to before buttoning it up. After installing the conduit, redoing two of the rivets, and putting in the nut plate, it was ready to be closed in forever! I only got about halfway through it tonight, but I think it was the harder half with all those rivets near the leading edge that were kinda hard to get to with the bucking bar. I got all the rivets forward of the front spar done, as well as all the front spar rivets on one side. It looks like the rest should go pretty quickly tomorrow, and then I'll have my first completed part! Excited for that...

The current state of the VS. All leading edge rivets are complete, and one side's front spar is done (the side not visible).

View inside the leading edge of the VS, with the lower half of rivets complete. You can also see the conduit run going through the lightening holes.

Inside the VS looking forward, you can see the lower half has been riveted to the spar, and the conduit running through the front area.

The grounding nut plate, installed just above the middle hinge on the VS main spar.

The grounding nutplate, installed above the middle attach point on the rudder spar.