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Often times Trailing edges are not straight.

Good or bad I don’t like the looks of a warped trailing edge, sometimes it  crops up in the build

Other times, it’s just wood moving and giving these propeller like trailing edges.

I have another new rudder here with a bowed trailing edge.

Rather then sand it to shape and cover it and pray that the covering tension removes the bow ,I am gonna try something different

A Splint.

I’ll add a slot into the trailing edge and straighten out the wood then glue the splint.

watch for wood grain in both the splint and the T E and try and put together so one works against the other , that will help keep things straight

This should clean up nicely afterwards, and with a clean cut, no additional weight 🙂

Here I try to show the bow, perhaps 1/16 inch, but quite noticeable to my eyes

again the bow,

11.7 Grams before surgery

I picked the spot, used a straight edge and eyeballed a couple edges and added two slits with a sharp single edge blade, these cuts are about 1/16 apart, tight fit is good

almost thru, I’ll freehand the cuts thru, and clean up the ends with a saw

Being careful where I break thru, not separating the opposite side with a big hole, I cleaned up both ends at a bit of an angle being careful not to widen the slot

OK, cut the strong back to length with a taper, ready for a trial fit

Great fit, tight squeeze

opposite side, this will clean up later

This rudder will get covered with opaque white so the fix won’t be seen A clean job here won’t even stand out if transparent covering is used

Next time you have a bowed rudder TE, pull the covering and give this a try, while your at it improve the hinging and check for broken joints especially at the bottom.