Lesson #4
After touching up a few places on the rudder skin with primer, I placed the completed rudder skin outside on a shelf so that it could cure in the sun. I came back about 4 or 5 hours later to close up the barn and shop and went over to pick up the skin and put it in side, but it was gone. It was dark by then and I thought the skin might have slipped off the shelf in a gust of wind, but it was nowhere to be found. I eventually found the skin about 20 yards from where I had placed it. Apparently it got caught in a wind gust and blew across the pasture. I brought it inside the shop and closed up for the night.
The next morning, I inspected the rudder skin and my heart was sick to find this:
In the tumbling and rolling across the pasture, the skin had been scraped in several places and had also gotten a crease or two.
I was pretty happy with the result of the skin after we finished it, but this morning I came to the realization that I would need to redo the whole thing due to the creases caused by the tumbling through the pasture. Van’s website says the skin is $41.40 and the stiffeners are $22.80. The finish kit is ready for shipment, so I called Van’s and asked them to put the parts in the finish kit crate so that Tony Partain can deliver it with everything else at the end of July.
So, I’ve now learned Lesson #4: NEVER LEAVE PARTS OUTSIDE UNATTENDED AND UNSECURED FOR ANY PERIOD OF TIME.
Cost of this lesson: $65.20 + 5 hours.
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