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My rudder has a sticker on it not to push. And when I wiggle it (ignoring the sticker?) it is as firm as my DA40's rudder was with the gust lock attached. Now I am trying to think of how to get the nosewheel off the ground to see if I could move the rudder easily with the nosewheel free.

I've been wondering about these stickers. However the checklist says Tail: "Elevator & rudder (freedom of movement, hinges)) (as it does about the aileron and they have a sticker on them as well.) This seems to imply that you should move them when doing the walk round.
So what is the consensus: do we check freedom of movement or not by hand, or by controls?
My Cirrus had similar stickers on the rudder, but that just meant not to try to move the aircraft by pushing on this surface, you could check rudder movement by hand.
David

I think the "do not push" (or in my case, a hand with a strike-through over it) is indeed regarding movement of the plane. That said, I don't like the idea of pushing against the springs holding the rudder in place since it's tied to the nosewheel.

I wiggled it a little during my last pre-flight. It doesn't move much at all. I am sorry there is not some sort of disconnect to the nose wheel steering so that you could gust-lock the rudder while leaving the plane in its most towable state. But it is hard for me to picture it behind outside in wind that would move that rudder, it seems like it should be in a hangar if it's that rough out.

Colin,
The rudder gust lock also keeps the ailerons from moving. Since it doesn't take that much wind to "flap" the ailerons around, do you think that keeping the gust lock on will help prevent aileron damage during windy conditions. There have been times when I flew back to MN and had to leave the plane outside because there was no hangar space (or I didn't want to pay the extra for 2 day hangar renal) and it was windy (and snowy). I felt more comfortable with the gust lock in place, but maybe I was just fooling myself.

Oh, I am definitely in favor of the gustlock for ailerons, but I get that by just using the strap, no pipe to the rudder pedals.

Colin wrote:I wiggled it a little during my last pre-flight. It doesn't move much at all. I am sorry there is not some sort of disconnect to the nose wheel steering so that you could gust-lock the rudder while leaving the plane in its most towable state. But it is hard for me to picture it behind outside in wind that would move that rudder, it seems like it should be in a hangar if it's that rough out.

I agree Colin, if the wind is strong enough to move the rudder on a DA42 then it should be in a hangar.
I suspect the lock was designed for the DA40 and then just carried over to the DA42.

It obviously works but I am not a big fan of the control lock. By locking the controls at the control column any loads imposed on the flight controls are transmitted through all the controls, control rods and linkages.
I still prefer old style locks that go on the flight controls themselves. But that of course includes the inherent risk of someone leaving them fitted.

FYI: The DA62 has a different gust lock that, while attached to the rudder pedals and center stick, also has a separate strap to fit around the rails of the movable pedals. I'm still trying to figure out how to get all the straps to be the right lengths, and where (how high) to attach the lock to the center stick.

I always thought the stickers were to indicate pinch points.

The gust lock by design is not user-friendly. I hardly use it. Instead, I loop the RH seat belt around the control stick, such that elevator and ailerons are in neutral position. This is not rigid fixation but prevents deflection in gusting wind and it takes me a just two minutes to attach.
The rudder is of no concern because it does not move freely.