Next came the more tedious task of installing the counterbalance skin and the the counterbalance weight. It takes many clecos and a bit of force to get the skin in place, then the rivets need to be bucked since they're too far down to reach with the squeezer yoke I have. It's a little tricky to hold the bucking bar steady in that area, but not too bad.
The counterbalance weight won't yet fit into the rib because of the rivets just installed, so it needs to have a little material filed away. This is just trial and error of filing away a bit, checking the fit, and repeating as necessary. Eventually the weight slides nicely into place.
A warning about this part: the top rib isn't in place to secure the skin and the lower counterbalance rib, so putting the weight in with the skeleton upright and without clecos holding the skin to the spar will cause the lower rib to bend down! Ask me how I know...
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| The lower four rivets were the only ones that really interfered with anything, so I only needed to shave the counterweight in those four places. |
Installing the bolts and nuts to secure the weight in place took a little improvisation. The nuts need to be torqued correctly and the only socket I had that was long enough to reach the nuts down in the counterbalance horn was slightly loose on the wrench. The screws are Phillips head, and of course they began to strip as soon as there was tension. I had to have force on the screwdriver to prevent it from slipping, so I pressed it tight against my worktable while using the wrench to torque the bolts. It wasn't pretty, but I was able to get both nuts torqued. A dab of torque sealant on each and I could finally start installing the rest of the rudder skin.
The top nine holes at the overlap between the counterbalance skin and main rudder skins was a challenge. The six holes closest to the top could be reached with the squeezer, but the lower three holes on each side had to be bucked. Once again, it was awkward having to blindly balance the bucking bar that far down while making sure the rivet gun is straight. A longer squeezer yoke would have been useful here.
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| I had forgotten to dimple the hole I'm pointing at here. It overlaps with the counterbalance skin, so there's no good way to dimple it once the skins are riveted on unless you're comfortable trying to dimple both skins at the same time. |
The top rib slid into place at this point, and riveting the rest of the skin to the skeleton went well. Pretty much every hole can be reached with the squeezer except for the last three or four near the narrow aft ends of the ribs. I decided to leave these open until after the trailing edge is finished to allow easier access back there.
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| Looking good! |
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| It looked too good to not stand it up again. |
