Posted for    "Ron Laughlin" <ronlaughlin@hotmail.com>

Don,
Just got home from vacation and found your post. My rudder hinges had a
similar mis-alignment. It was easy to correct. I loosened the bolts and
shimmed the base of the hinges with tiny carbon scraps. Lightly tightened
the bolts and checked the alignment. Attached rudder and checked for any
binding. When I was satisfied with the fit and alignment I super glued the
shims in place so they would not move. Did a flox release on the hinge
bases. Had to do this on the middle vert stab hinge and the middle and
bottom rudder hinges to get all hinge holes in a line and no binding with
full rudder travel.

Also, about the twisted rudder trim tab, sorry about the poor cell phone
reception when you called. I was driving through New Mexico on I-40 at the
time. If my explanation was not understandable with all that static, please
call back. Reception is much better here at home. In a nutshell, I body
worked the trailing edge of the rudder until it was straight. The bottom
trailing edge of the rudder (below the trim tab) needed about 3mm added to
the port side. When I attached the trim tab, with the top aligned with the
rudder trailing edge, the bottom was twisted out about 5mm starboard of
where it needed to be. I split the starboard side of the trim tab
lengthwise
with a diamond wheel about halfway between the forward spar and trailing
edge. I used mixing stick pieces to wedge the split apart until the
trailing
edge was straight with the rudder. Super glued the wedges in place so they
could not move. Removed the trim tab and put a 1 inch 2-bid patch over the
split, inside the trim tab. Once that had cured I removed the mixing stick
wedges and filled the remaining gap with micro/flox mix. Turned out nice
and
straight. Life is good.


Ron Laughlin
Legacy 156

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