I started the rudder tonight. I have yet to look over all the parts included in the complete airframe kit, but already I found surprises.

First, an observation: Zenith Aircraft did not choose low-residue easy-peel stickers when labeling every single part. In fact, I spent at least an hour peeling off and cleaning up the stickers on all the rudder pieces.

Two not so surprising discoveries:

1. Most of the tail pieces were packed at the bottom of the big box of aluminum parts. Why were these pieces not packed in the obvious location at the top of the box? I spent a good hour unpacking body annd other parts before finding the tail pieces at the bottom. Sigh.
2. Where is the composite rudder tip 65-T-4-2? In fact, where are all of the composite pieces?

The big surprise is the addition of two extra pieces (65-T-4-10 “rudder tip reinforcement” and 65-T-4-11) that are absent from the drawings. Based on their dimensions and the one label I saved, it appears they will fit at the top of the rudder and serve to reinforce the rudder tip.

It turns out the drawings were not updated but the latest version of the 65-T-5 Rudder Skins 1.03 10/9/14 manual (found via Google search) shows how the extra parts are assembled into the tip of the rudder.