11/07/2018 Rudder – Rudder Skin Trailing Edge Mistake (2.5 hours)

This is probably one of the dumbest mistake I have made so far. From the practice kit I know that I should not drill the trailing edge holes at 90 degree angle to the skin, instead I should drill at 84 degree angle, so that the angle is symmetrical on the other side. I even drew a line that’s 6 degree of what would be the perpendicular line on a piece of cardboard for reference when drilling. The only problem is that my line was on the other side, and I drilled half of the trailing edge holes at 96 degree angle instead of 84 before realizing the mistake. J later redrilled those holes again at the correct angle, which inevitably elongated the holes on the other side.

Eager to find out how bad I have screwed up, I continue on with dimpling and countersinking the trailing edge till mid night and had to call it a night before completing dimpling both side of the skins.

I sent an email to Vans support the next mornings to see if I need to start again with new skins and wedge, which will cost a little over $100 for the materials and probably quite a bit for shipping due to the size of the skin.