Per plans, the rudder travel each way needs to be 30 degrees. We used a plastic protractor taped (and centered) above the hinge point on the top of the rudder to measure the swing. High dollar safety wire was used for the precision indicator.

Tools used to trim skin for final fit. Pads for the pneumatic angle grinder were “Red” and “Blue”.

Mark a “do not exceed” line on the fuse skin and begin nibbling away. You can eyeball and predict how much skin to remove, or be bold and do the math. I’m conservative so I made several “rudder off – rudder on” cycles to get this fit right. You can easily remove aluminum, but sure is hard to put it back on.

Here’s what the final fit looks like with rudder in neutral position. Notice the extra protection on the tailwheel spring during the “fitting” process.

Use a coarse metal file after the rough cut to remove metal. It goes faster than you can imagine.

Rudder at 30 degree swing. In this position, gaps are approximately 3/16” between fuse skin and rudder skin. When the “protection material” is removed from the tailwheel spring, there is approximately 3/8” gap between it and the fiberglass bottom cap.