Devin W.C. Ryan

Building Aero 3D Day 14: Rudder & Fin Started

Today I started finding the pieces that make up the rudder and fin of the aircraft, pinning them in place. I started with R1 (the top of the rudder) and R2, which I will say is a cross brace of the rudder making up the bottom of the front half that hangs over the top of the fin and connects back to the trailing edge of the rudder. I lightly sanded these two pieces and then pinned R1 into place making sure the left and right sides were equal distance from the edge of the workbench. The image at the bottom can be used for reference and how I left things pinned at the end of this session.

Using the fixed R1 piece and the angle of the R2 piece I lined up a piece of 14” x 14” balsa stringer and used the left hand sides of R1 & R2 to get the angle correct along with making sure the two middle slots lined up appropriately so the 12” x 14” balsa was verticle (used a triangle to help ensure right angles at the top). Having these pieces pinned in place I was able to cut the 12” x 14” balsa to length, 212” and the 14” x 14” balsa stringer that angles between the leading edge and R2 to lengh, 234”.

Moving to the right side I was able to pin a longer piece of 14” x 14” balsa stringer to act as the trailing edge (I think this might be replce with a wider piece, not sure). I then pinned a piece of 12” balsa into the bottom slot of R2, using a square to ensure it was at a right angle to R2 (verticle).

I then moved on to the fin sanding F1 & F2. F2 makes up the top of the fin and F1 the bottom. Unfortunately while sanding F1 I broke it a bit and attempted repairs with thin CA… will see how this works out. I used the left edge of F2 and F1 to line up the balsa stringer to make up the leading edge and used the fact that the cross brace (yet to be cut) that fits between the ‘broken’ piece and the slot in F2 need to line up to determine where F1 needed to be. This was then all pinned into place.

For the trailing edge of the fin I am not convinced it is 12” balsa, but have it in place for now. I was then able to use the placement of F1 to determine the placement of R3 by using a ruler to extend the bottom of F1 since in the digram a piece of, 12” balsa I believe, is going to go from the leading edge of the rudder to the trailing edge and R3 is going to glue to the bottom of this and to the inside of the leading edge.

At this point I needed more 12” balsa but was leary of making any cuts. So I left everything pinned in place and stepped away to think about things before proceeding.

Rudder & Fin Beginnings
Rudder & Fin Beginnings

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