I received the second replacement rudder skin last week (third in total). I was surprised to find it waiting on my front porch since I said several times during phone conversations and and in emails that I would drive to TAF Torrance and transport it down myself. Anyway, I have it and I opened it yesterday. It was well transported in one of the new cardboard crates TAF is using. The skin was supremely bubble-wrapped and immovable within the crate., I had high hopes it would be in good condition. However, after carefully removing the packaging, my inspection revealed this horror at the top trailing edge: Unlike the other trailing edge kinks 12-16" down from the end that could easily occur from mishandling the skin, this kink required some assistance to develop. Something crushed it. Since it was close to the end of the skin, I decided to fix it. I used a combination of composite shims, needle-nose pliers, and a seamer. Here are the results: It's no...
If you're in a hurry, buy an airplane!