Winglet and rudder hinge pockets

With the winglets installed onto the wings, it was now time to focus on rudders.

The rudders had been cut away from the winglets a while ago and sitting on my workbench ever since. The first step was to mill out a 1" deep pocket on the leading edge of the rudders. Although the plans say "approx 1 inch", I took this to be 1" and wish I would have made it 1.3" - especially on the winglet trailing edge pocket. This is because the hinges get tucked into a 0.2" cutout into the trailing edge of the winglet - pushing the hinge forward into the winglet 0.2" so a 1" pocket isn't truly deep enough. I ended up having to trim my hinges lengthwise by 0.2" but that will be explained in a later post.

Anywho - moving on...


So I used my dremel to mill out a 1" deep pocket on the rudder's leading edge...


I milled out a top and bottom channel.. and then free-handed the dremel in between...



I then used a metal file to make the surface perfectly flat... notice the duct tape handle I added to the metal file.. this made sliding the file back and forth effortless.


That is a nice looking 1" deep pocket! Notice how I took the pocket all the way to the ends (through the top and bottom of the rudder). This is because I am going to install the hidden belhorns at the very bottom of my rudders. I'll figure out how to "cap" the ends later.


But before I could apply the pocket layups, the glass surfaces had to be prepped for a nice glass-to-glass bond.. I weighed the rudder down using gallon water jugs...


And with the dremel I removed all the micro and prepped the pocket for the layups...


Here's a BEFORE pic....



And here's what it looks like AFTER passing the dremel...





Of course, this had to be repeated for the other rudder...


I then focused on prepping the winglet pockets...


I drew a line to show me a 1" pocket. Again, I wish I had done a 1.3" deep pocket to give me more room for the hinge later on.


I adjusted the dremel depth...


And began milling out the foam...


One side first...


Then the other side...



I then did a middle channel and snapped the foam off...



This leaves the pocket a bit rough...


But is easily sanded with a metal file...


Now that is a perfect hinge pocket!


Just like the rudders, the winglets also need to be prepped for a glass-to-glass bond... so the micro is sanded off with the dremel..


Much better!


The bottom of the pocket also needed to be sanded so I switched to a finer sanding drum...



The plans say to create a 0.6" pocket at the top.. but I decided to keep it flat. Small detail, but I think it looks cleaner this way.


With the pockets milled out, it was time for the pocket layups. This is composed of 3 BID plies at 45.. and then 2 plies BID locally where the hinges go. I started out by painting plain epoxy on the pocket walls...


Followed by slurry on the foam surface...


And dry micro on the corners for a nice fillet. I should have kept this fillet as small as possible, as it later caused an issue with it catching the forward lip of the hinge. I had to trim the hinge a bit so not a big a deal - but something to consider.


Here is Austin helping me tuck the BID ply into the pocket... this went pretty smoothly.. using a brush to tuck the ply in...


I then wetter the ply out, and installed the second ply.. and then the third...


I then trimmed the plies about 0.5" overhang...


I then installed the 2 plies locally where the hinges will go.. I purposely made these plies 2" longer than the hinges to give me more wiggle room later...




With everything wetted out... we let cure...


The next day, I drew a line length wise where I needed to trim the rudder's leading edge...


This was easy to do since the rudder already had the outside skin showing me where the leading edge lip is...


I then rough trimmed with the multi tool...


And sanded everything smooth... I was careful to not remove too much material - as any material removed would show up as a gap between the winglet and rudder later on...


Taaaaa-daaaaa! Rudder pockets complete!


Nice looking rudder pockets!


But couldn't celebrate just yet... it was now time to glass the winglet pockets!


I uninstalled the wings, and placed them on the floor...


Since I want a flat surface on the top of the rudder cutout, I needed to make a flox corner around this "V"...


Using the dremel, I made sure I removed all the micro for a good flox bond...



With everything prepped, it was time for the winglet pocket layups... same as the rudders...

Started out by painting plain epoxy on the walls...


Slurry on the foam and dry micro on the corners...


Flox on the top rudder cutout..



I worked these along so didn't take too many pics... 3 plies BID at 45 and 2 plies BID locally where the hinges will go...



After cure, I trimmed everything up...









And there you have it!! Rudder and winglet hinge pockets are complete! Ready to install some rudders!!!




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