Hey first of all, terrific news... I just ordered my wings kit and fuselage kit. With a bit of luck, it will arrive at the end of June. I passed the point of not return. At least, now I know what to do in the weekends in the next 4 years and hopefully 'happily ever after'.
I discovered this week on the plans that I have not been using the right rivets to attach the nutplates to the front spar of the rudder.
I checked on the rivets measurements on the reinforcement plates at the plan. There is no special arrow towards the nutplate so I assumed that they would then have the same size.
Teeuuuuut... wrong... rule nr 1, never just assume things and THINK !
Investigating the plans more I found a rivet callout underneath the naming of the nutplate (opposite side of the plan). Dear Vans... this is a bit of an unusual place to put this if you are setting the rivet sizes on the other side.
I drilled them out carefully as these are very crucial attach points. No more nutplates, no more rudder... you don't want to have this happening in flight.
I inspected the holes very well and there is no enlargement, neither damage on the nutplates so I could safely reuse them for the new correct length sizes.
The top two rivets would still have been ok with the shorter ones. The top one I left as my minimum thickness shop head is respected and the diameter is fine. The middle one was fine two but one of the two rivets had a bit of an overhang and I decided to remove these.
I also drilled the aluminum angle that I will be using when glueing the trailing edge together.