04/15/06 - Worked on the rudder parts. Primed the skin stiffeners and backriveted. Assembled with clecos.
04/16/06 - Match drilled the skins, fabricate various small rudder parts. Dimpled and primed the remaining parts
04/18/06 - Picked up an aluminum channel piece for use in bonding the trailing edge. Spent time deburring and removing the inside plastic on the skins.
04/19/06 - Finish deburr and dimpling rudder skins
04/21/06 - Really lost the momentum this week. Worked on bits and pieces, and spent a lot of time on the phone with prospective Mooney buyers. Staying up to late makes it hard to follow directions, lol
04/22/06 - Back to work! Finished riveting the rudder skeleton and skins to the skeleton, and set the trailing edge up to bond with epoxy. Note the high tech rudder fixture!
04/23/06 - Had to redo the trailing edge of the rudder. I initially used epoxy, but that was to thin or I didn't use enough. This time I used JB Weld. Let that sit for the day, started on the elevator skins. Made all the elevator stiffners.
04/24/06 - Rudder came out awsome. Backriveting the whole thing took about 20 min. Then I rolled the leading edges and riveted the leading edge together. 1 more surface done! Well, sort of. I still have to do all the glass work and mate them, but I'll have plenty of time while I'm waiting for the Mooney to sell and order the wings :(. Also back riveted a set of stiffeners to the elevator skin and called it a night.
04/25/06 thru 05/03/06 - Been picking away at the kit. Finished the paint booth. The right elevator is finished, leaving me only 1 piece left to build!! I'll be starting on the left elevator shortly, this time I'll take pictures :)
Right Elevator
05/03/06 - Started on the left elevator tonight. The skin and stiffeners had already been done last week. Got all the structure parts clecoed and drilled, and clecoed the skin on.