Progress Picture as of 11-20-07...

Wing harness, left seatback, control rod tunnel, etc

16 Nov 2006: two of us, 4 hrs each. Installed wing harness bushings and installed wing harness. Prepared fuel sensor harness. Finished left seat back, finished control rod tunnel. Dimpled forward cabin cover and baffle bracket.

Inboard harness drilling, seatback, control rod tunnel

14 Nov 2006: 2 of us, 4 hrs each. Using a drill bit extension, we drilled an additional hole in the inboard ribs for wing harness. We rivetted together the right seatback. We assembled the left seatback, and control rod tunnel, and prepared these for rivetting.

Seat backs, cabin covers, harness

09 Nov 2006: all of us, 3 hrs each. Primed angles that capture seat-back flanges. Fit forward cabin covers. Inserted large snap bushings into left wing for power harness, pulled coax through small bushings.

Left Seatback, wing harness

07 Nov 2006: two of us 4 hrs, one of us, 3 hrs. Completed drilling left seat together, and deburred all holes. Test fits and planning for wing harness. Inventories bushings.

Wing stuff, seatback stuff

02 Nov 2006: all of us 4 hrs each. Fit pitot tube line to pitot tube with elbow fitting. Pulled wire harness for both wings through the wing. Drilled all angles for both seatbacks to seatbacks, drilled seat-back brace for right seat.

More various stuff

31 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. Finished the rivet inventory! Also finished trimming seat-back angles. Installed an over-sized 5/32" rivet in a hole that we oversized in the firewall recess. More electrical system planning, and studying the plans for what's next.

Finish right tank, seat-back stuff, etc.

24 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. Based on some ohmmeter measurements, we re-bent the wire holding the float on the fuel level indicator to get a more accurate "Empty" indication. We hung the right tank on the spar, and torqued and marked the bolts. All in all, this right tank modification for inverted flight has taken quite a lot longer than we had hoped!

We also cut the angles and hinges for the seat-backs, did an inventory of all the AD4 rivets, and did some more planning on the routing of the wing harnesses.

Seal & leak-check right tank, seat-back stuff

19 Oct 2006: two of us, 4 hrs each. We sealed and leak-checked the right tank. It passed! When we went to install the fuel sender, we had a nasty (but thankfully brief) surprise. It turns out one of the nutplates is for a larger screw! The nutplate looks quite similar, and they had not been sorted when they were installed, so the wrong one was installed. Not a biggee, just need a larger screw. The smaller one just turns in the hole, as if the threads were stripped out.

We also assembled the hinges for the seat-back support flanges, drilled the hinges to the flanges, and de-burred them.

Final assembly of right tank mods, other stuff

17 Oct 2006: two of us, 5 hrs each. Tonight was the final assembly of the right tank mods for inverted flight. In the process, we used the Pro-Seal "caulking gun cartridge" that does the mixing for you, so we didn't need the mass balance. Per the instructions, we used the remaining Pro-Seal to close out the voids in the corners of the firewall and around the firewall recess cover. However, we're having second thoughts about the fire-proof-ness of this stuff, and may want to come back later with something better. Also, we trimmed the seat-back support flanges and cut out the large lightening holes shown on the plans.

More little stuff

12 Oct 2006: all of us, 3 hrs each. Ran tubing for pitot through wing. Finished parts for control tube cover. More electrical system planning.

Pitot, control rod tunnel, tank stuff

10 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. Riveted pitot tube bracket nut plates, fit pitot tube into bracket, and installed tubing in wing for pitot. Fabricated the control rod tunnel. Prepared right fuel tank for tank sealant.

Various little things

05 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. We fit the fuel tank brackets and match-drilled them. We trimmed the rudder pedal center bracket to ensure clearance around the firewall recess in case of vibration, as we weren't happy with the clearance we ended up with when the part was trimmed according the plans. We did some more sorting and dividing of the various rivet bags. We did some investigation and planning on how we will do the electrical system. We made a balance for mixing Pro-Seal. And, we began the final assembly of the mods for the right tank.

Lots of stuff

03 Oct 2006: all of us, 4 hrs each. Tonight we completed the roll servo harness and installed the roll servo. The angle connector solved the problem. We rinsed out and thoroughly dried the right fuel tank to be double sure we got all the shavings out. We completed the fuel tank trap door and remaining bracket. We prepped and primed the fuel tank attach brackets. We also re-drilled the rudder pedal bearing blocks to the longerons with a long bit in the angle drill using an adaptor to hold the bit. This finally has the bolts sliding as easily as they should.

Roll servo, more wing harness, tank attach bracket

21 Sep 2006: two of us, four hours each. We test-fit the roll servo, and determined that we will need a smaller or right-angle connector for the harness. Began prep work on the landing/strobe/position light harness, and also the harness for the heated pitot. Fabricated parts for the fuselage side of the tank attach attach bracket.

Harness, flap, tank stuff

19 Sep 2006: all of us, 4 hours each. Tonight we started on some of the wiring harness for the wing: the roll servo harness and the strobe light harness. Our plan is to try and get the wings completely finished and "declare victory" as much as possible on this front before completely moving on. We also fabricated the flap actuator bearing blocks, and thoroughly cleaned out all the metal shavings that have accumulated inside the right tank.

Firewall recess, other stuff

14 Sep 2006: all of us, four hours each. Tonight we attached the firewall recess to the firewall. Once again, we forget the Boe-lube, but we almost got away with it. Unfortunately, one of the holes got enlarged, and we will have to use a 5/32" rivet. We also riveted on the bracket for the brake lines, and the rudder pedal brace. We installed the elevator pushrod bellcrank, trimmed the F757 gusset plate, and prepared the flop tube.

Elevator bellcrank, tank stuff, etc.

12 Sep 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. Prep work on elevator pushrod bellcrank (match-drilled, fabriacted spacers, primed, etc.). Fitted fuel level float for right tank, and continued working on routing out the spacer washer to clear pre-existing rivet heads. Also removed the F705G angles and F757 plates that were installed by the factory, since we are doing the slider canopy. We will have to modify the F757 plates accordingly.

Sorting, etc.

07 Sep 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. After all this time, we are still sorting stuff! Bagged rivets, cotter pins, nuts, and washers. Installed right control stick and floors. Prepared spray gun for priming.

Aileron and flap atttachment, other stuff

05 Sep 2006: all of us, 4.5 hours each. Tonight we hit a milestone -- installation of the flaps and ailerons to the wings. They will come off later, but it's neat to finally see the "full chord" wing. Plus, storing them here, attached to the wing, gets them out of "harm's way." Also, we continued working on the flop tube; there is a large spacer washer that had to have some material removed to clear pre-existing rivet heads. We also fitted the right control stick.

Once again various projects

31 Aug 2006: all of us, 4 hours each. Made 5/16" spacers to replace the incorrect ones and primed them. Greased the bellcrank and control stick bushings. Torqued all bolts attaching left tank to main spar and marked with torque-seal. Installed nutplates for Gretz heated pitot control panel. Installed nut-inserts to hold trap door and flop tube bracket to ribs inside right fuel tank. Began prepping right control stick.

Aileron attach brackets, tank anti-hangup guides

29 Aug 2006: two of us, 4 hours each. Tonight we prepared and attached the aileron attach brackets, but did not final-torque them. When we fitted the right aileron, we realized we had been using 3/8" tube for the bellcrank and aileron attachment spacers instead of 5/16". We finished the anti-hangup guide for the large inboard access cover, and continued fitting the interior anti-hangup guide.

Pitot, tank mod work

22 Aug 2006: 2 of us, 4 hours each. Prepared template for pitot tube, and prepared for mounting of pitot tube temperature control circuit board. Prepared to mount trap door in right fuel tank, prepared mock-up for anti-hangup guides required for flop tube.

Pedal assembly attachment, tanks mods

15 Aug 2006: 2 of us, 4 hours each. Drilled F-6118 center bracket and F-719L & R longerons to receive bolts that attach the pedal assembly bearing blocks. For the longerons, this was a real pain since we didn't have any bits for the angle drill that were long enough, and there is not enough room to get any other kind of drill in there. Instead, we slid a bit through the hole in the bearing block and marked the longeron with the tip of the bit by twisting the bit several times and pushing down. Then, we center-punched these marks, and drilled them out with the angle drill. This was not ideal, as the holes didn't end up as well-centered as they should have been, and a good bit of filing was required to get the bolt to slip in.

We also fabricated the trap door that is required for the flop tube mod to the right tank, and riveted nut plates to the new sender plate (note that these particular nut plates had not been inventoried IN DETAIL yet, which would cause some consternation later!).

Finally, we fabricated the aileron alignment tool out of a long 2x4, per the drawing.

Various projects yet again

08 Aug 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. We fitted the pitot tube to its bracket and fitted the assembly to its backing plate. We also trimmed and drilled the brake center bracket, and marked the locations in the fuselage where it attaches. We competed the reinforcing ring fo rthe new fuel cover plate. We set up our pneumatic squeezer with a new ram (the one it came with didn't seem to seat correctly).

Install flap/aileron gap fairings, other stuff

03 Aug 2006: two of us, 4 hours each. We repeated the leak test of the left tank with a balloon, and it still passed. We installed the flap and aileron gap fairings. We prepared the rudder brace for cutting and drilling.

Close-out left tank, other stuff

01 Aug 2006: all of us, 4 hours each. Closed out the left and leak checked. Didn't have a balloon so we used a neoprene glove. This seemed to work OK, but we will repeat with a balloon next time to be sure. Also worked on a reinforcement plate for the relocated sender on the right tank. We installed the final left outboard aileron bracket, and studied the installation instructions for the Gretz heated pitot tube we bought at AirVenture.

Final assembly of aileron brackets, brake pedals

20 Jul 2006: 2 of us, 4 hours each. We riveted the right wing aileron brackets, and the center only of the left wing aileron brackets. We completed the brake pedals, and inventoried the 3/32 rivets.

Various projects

18 Jul 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. We sanded the parts of the remaining aileron bracket to match each other, and worked on the mounting of the foot pedals. We completed the aileron push rods, and dimpled the trailing edges of the wing skins.

Aileron pushrod drilling & priming

16 Jul 2006: 2 of us, 3 hours each. We match-drilled the aileron push rods to their rod ends. The steel tubes were a bit of pain to drill because we forget to use our Boe-Lube! We primed the inside by pouring in some two-part epoxy primer, closing off both ends, and rotating the tube around all 3 axes several times. We also primed the rod ends, and sanded and primed various scratches in the aluminum push rods that we'd previously anodized.

Brake pedal, aileron bracker final assembly, etc.

13 Jul 2006: All of us, 4 hours each. Tonight we riveted together the foot pedals and aileron brackets. We worked on the right flap hinge, and continued to work on the right fuel tank sender modification. We also worked on the sharp edges of the flap braces.

Various little projects

11 Jul 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. Lots of little projects tonight. This is a night when having three of us really pays. One task was to prepare the smaller elevator pushrod (the one between the bellcrank and the control sticks) for anodizing, which we had forgotten about when we did the larger pushrod (the one between the bellcrank and the elevator horn). We assembled the brake/rudder pedal assembly. We fabricated the left flap hinge, which involves drilling and countersinking to receive the dimpled holes in the lower wing skin. The hinge material is about the minimum thickness for countersinking, and it requires care not to enlarge the rivet holes when countersinking. We learned this the hard way, and will have to install one or two "oops" rivets at one end of the hinge. We had managed to do the entire empennage and everything else to this point without any "oops" rivets, so we were probably bound by fate to get careless at some point. Finally we started fabricating the modified cover plate and reinforcements for the right fuel tank sender attachment modification mentioned in the last post.

Tank, aileron/flap brackets

06 Jul 2006: all of us, 3 hours each.



Tonight we finished the tank cover plate for the left tank. You can see the fuel pickup installed with the anti-rotation bracket, and the nutplates for the attachment of the sender through the hole. The float-type sender is visible at the left of the photo.

We also cut out a new cover plate for the aft bulkhead of the right tank, which we will use to install the sender. You can see the hole in the 2nd photo; note how much smaller it is than large hole in the end bulkhead, which is covered by a round blank cover plate with the blue film on it. It is a bit larger than the hole for the sender in the standard cover plate, which you can see in the first photo. This size will allow room to install the reinforcements and allow clearance for nutplates to install the sender (barely!)




We are putting a flop tube in the right tank only, and this requires relocating the sender to the next outboard bay to avoid mechanical interface between the flop tube and the sender. The suggested procedure is the same as if you have to repair a leak in the tank, i.e. cut the same size hole in the aft bulkhead as is used for the side bulkhead. However, we want to use a reamer to cut this hole, and the z-angles don't allow clearance. We think we can make smaller cut-out work, but it will be a challenge to rivet the cover and reinforcements in place, since the diameter of the hole won't allow room for our rivet squeezer yoke. Our idea is to use the blind rivets that don't have a hole in them. If they leak, we can always drill them out and cut the large hole.


We also did some quick hole reaming work on the aileron and flap attach brackets tonight. One of the rivets was misplaced, and we had to drill it out and re-locate it.

Finished aileron attach bracket prep

04 Jul 2006: Yours truly, 2 hours. I had a little time before tonight's festivities to swing by the garage and finish the prep work on the aileron brackets. We are going to anodize these too. The thinking here is that, just like the pushrod tubes, once these are riveted together, there is no possibility to inspect for corrosion inside. Paint would of course be cheaper, but we think this will be a lot better, and won't cost too much. We've got a lot of little parts that are lying around waiting for paint, and we're going to take it all to the plating shop. Soon, we're going to have to start painting, or these plating expenses will get out of hand!

Brake pedal, flap brace, aileron mount and fairing prep

29 June 2006: two of us, 4 hours each. Lots of little jobs tonight. We trimmed the brake pedal side angle brackets to fit into the rudder pedal weldments. We trimmed the flap braces to clear the rear spar reinforcement. We trial-fitted the aileron attach brackets and trial fit the aileron gap fairing. With the aileron brackets cleco'ed together, we match-drilled and reamed the rivet holes, disassembled the parts, buffed the edges, and deburred the holes. Didn't finish them all - 2 to go.

Pushrod completion, etc.

27 Jun 2006: all of us, 3 hours each. Tonight we completed the aileron and elevator pushrods by assembling and riveting the now-anodized aluminum tubes to the rod ends. The rivet holes were fully prepped prior to anodizing. We also fitted the control stick assembly to its mounts in the fuselage, and prepared the nut that attaches the fuel pickup tube to the anti-rotation bracket for safety-wiring, per Van's Service Bulletin.

Fuel tank cover plate, more brake pedal prep

20 Jun 2006: Two of us, 4 hours each. Tonight we riveted the nutplates and the anti-rotation bracket on to the tank cover plate, and sealed all the rivet holes and seams with Tite Seal, which is what we plan to use for the gasket that goes between the cover and the tank bulkhead. This was recommended to us over Pro Seal as being just as secure against leaks, and much easier to remove if that is ever necessary. It's not ideal for sealing up rivets like we did tonight, because it doesn't set fully like ProSeal does. We decided to give it a try anyway, since we had it handy and didn't have any ProSeal yet. If it fails the leak test, we can always re-do it with ProSeal. (Peek ahead: it passed the leak test).

We also did more prep work on the brake pedals: countersinking for the rivets that will attach the side angles, and deburring the rivet holes and, filing and sanding the larger lightening holes. A certain amount of grinding was also necessary to get everything to fit. We've talked ourselves into anodizing the brake pedals rather than painting them. To match the brake master cylinder assemblies, which mount right next to them, we're going to use a gold-tinted anodize. These will truly be "gold-plated" brake pedals! (I would say in hindsight that this was more expensive that I'd have liked, and unnecessary. Plus, we should have been more careful with the sandpaper, as on close inspection, the roughness from the sanding shows right through the plating.)

Brake pedals, fuel sender resistance check

15 June 2006: two of 4 hours, one came late and put in an hour. We worked some more on the brake/rudder pedal assembly tonight, getting everything fit together and match-drilled. We also measured and recorded the fuel sensor resistance levels in "full" and "empty" positions.

Roll Servo, etc.

13 June 2006: two of us, 4 hours each. Having received the roll servo from Tru Trak, we went ahead and test fit it to the spar. Tru Trak supplies a very nice mounting kit for the RV-7. The kit replaces one of the bellcrank mounting angles with a somewhat larger one that holds the servo. The servo is then attached to the bellcrank with a little pushrod, which is supplied.



The kit comes with professional drawings and mounting hardware, so there is very little to do except position and drill a hole in the bellcrank web to attach the pushrod. The only minor difficulty is that TruTrak's drawings don't show the mounting hardware. Naturally, the three of us each had a different view about how the hardware should be utilized! It's all pretty obvious, except the washer placement. A phone call to Tru Trak eventually cleared this up, once we found the right person to ask. The summary answer is that the large washers should be used to contain the rod end bearings if for some reason the bearing should ever break free of its enclosure. Once you have that clue, the rest is pretty obvious.

Other items for this evening: we reamed the holes in the bellcranks and fuel cover nutplates, and fabricated the angles that attach to the sides of the brake pedals, and hold the mounting hardware that attaches the pedals to the steel rudder pedal weldment.

More controls

01 Jun 2006: two of us, 3 hours each. Tonight we finished threading the flap pushrods, and fabricated and fit the aileron bellcrank spacers (W-929). With all the parts finally in hand, we test-fit the bellcranks to the spar. We also found all the parts we'll need to start working on the rudder and brake assembly.

Controls work

30 May 2006: all of us, 5 hours each. This was a busy night. We ground all four of the brass bushings (two for the aileron bellcranks, and two for the control sticks) to the specified clearances on the bellcranks. We cut to length and fitted the larger of the two elevator pushrods. We match-drilled the holes for the rivets that attach the rod ends to all three of pushrods we've made so far. We cut to length and tapped and threaded the tubes for the flap pushrods. All of these aluminum tubes will be annodized, as described in a previous post. We also inventoried all the blind ("Pop") rivets.

Tank work

25 May 2006: all of us, 4 hours each. Another of our guiding principles is to equip this plane for sustained inverted flight. This requires replacing the standard fixed fuel pickup with a flop tube in at least one of the tanks. With the Quickbuild, you get fully completed and pressure-tested fuel tanks. So, we had some hand-wringing about tearing into a perfectly good tank, but we are sticking to our plan. Tonight, we removed the right tank to begin the modification process. The idea is the right tank will be the "right tank" for aerobatics.

Also, we didn't like the edge clearance of the hole on the anti-rotation bracker made according to Van's drawing, so tonight we made another one with the hold repositioned slightly. This one looks better. Once this was all done, we took another look at the smaller-sized drawing update shipped with our kit, and realized that Van's has now provided a ready-made anti-rotation bracket with the kit! But after all this, we going to use the one that we made!!

We also did some filing on the aileron bellcranks to get the brass bushings to fit inside.

Left Fuel Pickup, Inventory

23 May 2006: all of us, 4 hours each. Lesson learned from last time, we started doing a detailed inventory on all the small bags of parts. Also, started on the anti-rotation bracket for the left fuel pickup, and completed countersinking for the nutplates in the cover.

Aileron Bellcrank and Fuel Tank Pickup & Sender

19 May 2006: 2 of us, 3 hours each. Tonight we fitted the aileron bellcranks and the fuel pickup and fuel sender for the left tank. We spent a lot of time looking for the brass bushing around which the bellcrank rotates. Later, we gave up and called Van's. Turns out it was in one of the small brown paper bags filled mostly with rivets, screws, nutplates, etc. that we hadn't inventoried yet.

Aileron Pushrod Fabrication

10 May 2006, 2 of us, 3 hours each.



Tonight we started fabricating the aileron pushrods. We cut the raw aluminum tubes to length using a pipe cutter, which worked pretty well, except that it rolled the edge of the tube in where the blade rolled around it. This caused an interference with the rod end, and it took a fair bit of filing to open the end of the tube enough to slip the rod end into it.

In the next few days, we debated a bit how to reliably prime the interior of these tubes. Once the rod ends have been riveted in, there is no practical corrosion inspection of the interior of the tube possible. Obviously, a fatigue failure of the tube would not result in a good day. A friend who is building a Long EZ suggested annodizing the pushrods, and pointed us to a shop he has used, Almag Plating Corporation in south Baltimore. This seemed like the perfect solution. We decided to go ahead and fabricate the elevator pushrods also, and get the lot annodized together. We ended up using a clear sulfuric anodize with hot water seal, which cost $75.00 for the whole lot. It would have been cheaper, but the rods were so long, the guys at Almag had to do a special job just for this.

The photo here was taken a couple weeks later, after the parts were back from plating.

Panel Ideas

One of our guiding principles in this project is to have a modern, all-electric avionics system. We have found Bob Nuckols' Aeroelectric Connection to be a pretty good source of information for home-builders on this topic: www.aeroelectric.com. We've also found some interesting discussions on the Matronics's site: http://www.matronics.com/digest/.





Early on, we decided that since a lot of our flying would be done with two of us sharing the duties, we wanted the right and left seats to be "created equal" as much as possible. This led us to the idea of using an LCD screen on each side that could be swapped between engine info and primary flight instruments, depending on who is currently flying. Radios, moving maps, and backup flight instruments will then fill out the middle of the panel. Given the limited relatively small size of the RV-7 panel, we quickly decided that we needed to go with 2-1/4" backup flight instruments, rather than 3-1/8". This would turn out to be a somewhat limiting choice, but we can live with it.

Although it will be some time before we buy the avionics, we plan to install the autopilot servos while we still have easy access. After a fair bit of trolling around the web and talking to lots of fellow home-builders, we decided that TruTrak, www.trutrakflightsystems.com, was the clear choice for us. Besides hearing lots of good things about the design, performance, and reliability of TruTrak's servos and controllers, we really liked the option of getting a single instrument that served as both a backup attitude reference and the autopilot controller. Unfortunately, our decision to stick with the 2-1/4" instruments means we will be limited to the single-axis Pictorial Pilot, rather than than the two-axis ADI Pilot product. I talked to the designer of this device at Oshkosh, and he told me that he really tried to fit the ADI Pilot into a 2-1/4" form factor, and it just didn't work. This doesn't mean that we won't have a pitch autopilot however. We plan to use the Altrak VS product, which provides a simple altitude and vertical speed select functionality. One other limitation of combining the autopilot with the backup instrument is that both the Pictorial Pilot and the ADI Pilot use the analog Digitrak controller, rather than the digital Digiflite controller. The advantage of going digital would be that it can accept digitial steering over an ARINC 429 bus. However, it also costs a fair bit more, and we are already over budget on this panel!





More web trolling, email traffic with vendors, and visits with the vendors at Oshkosh has led us to conclude that, as of today, Grand Rapids, www.grtavionics.com, has the system closest to what we would have designed ourselves. Although the screen resolution is not as good as the competition, and their use of Windows CE for the display unit operating system disappoints us, they seem to have the best AHRS (attitude heading and reference system) design, and this is the guts of the EFIS. Also, they have a tight integration with the TruTrak autopilot that we like, and can drive it to follow a heading reference from the nav radios, and their bus concept gives us enough flexibility to achieve our goals, although we are afraid we will be close to maxing it out. An important consideration for us is also their claim that they will be offering a WAAS, IFR-certified GPS option. They already have a VFR version. If this comes to pass, it may put us over the top on the decision to go with GRT, since it will save us a ton of money vs. buying something like the Garmin GNS 430.

Finally, we are leaning toward the Garmin GTX327 transponder and Garmin SL30 nav/comm, since they are priced competitively and seem to offer better technology than the competition. Still TBD are (1) do we really need an audio panel, or could we live with just an intercom and marker beacon receiver and (2) do we need a backup nav/comm radio? There are a couple topics in play on the backup nav/comm that need to be resolved. One is whether or not GRT comes out with the IFR GPS option. If they don't, and we get a separate IFR GPS anyway, we will likely make it a GPS/nav/comm unit like the GNS 430. Since this unit effectively has the SL30 built in, we could drop the separate SL30 in this case, if we were OK using handheld nav/comm and handheld GPS as a backup. Besides cost, the other issue with backup nav/comm is antenna placement. We are hoping to use the Bob Archer antennas (http://home.hiwaay.net/~sbuc/journal/bob_archer.htm) that mount inside the wingtips, to try and keep the drag down as much as possible. Unfortunately, Archer's vertically-polarized tip antenna won't fit in the new RV-7 vertical-stabilizer tip, so we are going to see how using one of his horizontally-polarized antennas in the wingtip works for comm. If the gain is adequate, we will see about taking the 3 dB hit for a splitter so that a backup comm radio could share the antenna. We'll try this out with the handheld first, then look into adding a comm-only backup comm radio to the panel. Note that we don't have this issue for nav, since we only plan to have one VHF nav radio, the other nav being provided by a precision-approach-certified WAAS IFR GPS.

The last two images here, which I made using epanelbuilder, www.epanelbuilder.com, show some variants on these options. You have to use screen capture to get the images off the webpage, unless you pay them!

Wing Cradle Completion

29 Apr 2006, about 3 hours (forgot to write it down!)




We completed the wing cradle today, and it sure cleared up a lot space in the garage! I think we did some more inventory, starting to break down the subkits, but no one remembered to write anything in the log that day, so all we have is the photos. So far, this is the one and only time we forget to write something up in the log.

Inventory, Bent Panels Found

27 Apr 2006: 2 of us, 3 hours each.


Today we did a detailed inventory of all but the numerous subkits. Everything was there, but we did find two panels that appear to have been slightly bent in the shipment. These are the left and right F-7105B outboard sub-panels. These parts were in the large cardboard box, lying together on top of several other parts.

As you can see from the photos, there is about a 1" deflection, uniformly across them both. This corresponds to the way they were laying across the material that was underlying them in the box. Since there is no "fence" along the edge with the largest bend, we can't see how we could flute them to restore their flatness. Drawing 24 shows a slight bend across the bottom of these panels in Section A-A, but it appears to be opposite to the way the F-7105B right subpanel that we received is bent.

We did contact Van's about this, and sent them photos, and their response was "the[y] will be just fine. When you get to the point that you install them you will make a bend across the bottom and that will help straiten[sic] them out." While we agreed that this would probably work, we would have preferred to have Van's send us a set that were straight.

QB Kit Arrival!

23 Apr 2006: 2 of us, 2 hours each.



We got a surprise phone call from Partain's that they were only a few hours away, and would be delivering the kit today! We had planned to finish the wing cradle, but instead spent today unloading and unpacking. It was really easy: the wings were strapped to the sides of the trailer, and the fuselage was in a roller cart that we could roll right into the garage. It only took two of us to lift it off the cart, with a third steadying the tail. The wings could easily be carried off the truck by two, each holding one end of the main spar. Too bad we didn't get that cradle finished in time!

The stuff wrapped in blue film is the ailerons and flaps.

Preparations for QB Kit arrival

20 Apr 2006: 2 of us, 3 hours each. Due to various logistics, we didn't get started right away after coming back from the Builder Assist, but after several weeks, we finally got the Quick-Build kit ordered, and reconvened to start preparing for the kit's arrival: cleaning out the garage, and starting on a cradle to hold the wings. We decided to use Partain Transport to deliver the kit. The thinking was that this would save us having to get a delivery truck down the driveway, unload a large crate from off of a truck, and we'd save some money on the crating charge.

Builder Assist Program Day 4

09 Mar 2006: 5 hours each. Day 4 of the Builder Assist. Thanks to all our hard work the last 3 days, and the willingness of Jacob and Mike from Alexander Tech Center to stay late supervising us, we had only a few things to wrap up today. The elevators, rudder, and trim tab had been primed the previous night, so all we had to do was assemble them all back together, and do the riveting.

There were a couple of tricky spots for which we really benefited from the Builder Assist Program. One was rolling the leading edge of the elevators, for which once again, they had a handy stand that held the elevators in place while rolling. Here is Jacob from Alexander Tech Center demonstrating how to use the stand.




The other was riveting the trailing edge of the rudder while keeping it as straight as possible. On this last step in particular, we really benefited from Jacob's advice and instruction.

Builder Assist Program Day 3

08 Mar 2006: 10 hours each. This was Day 3 of the Builder Assist Program.






We completed the final assembly of the horizontal and vertical stabilizers.






They had a frame that was really handy for riveting on the horizontal stabilizer skins. It made it fairly easy to reach up inside the stab to buck the rivets.

Builder Assist Program Day 2

07 Mar 2006: 11 hours each. This was day 2 of the builder assist program. We completed the horizontal stabilizer pre-assembly, and the rudder pre-assembly. As before, this was more fluting, grinding, fitting, match-drilling, deburring, and dimpling.








Then, we marked everything using a blue sharpie, and disassembed it all for priming. Included in the price of the builder assist program is priming all the inside surfaces of the empennage with two-part epoxy primer. We hadn't really made a decision at that point on what we planned to do about priming the rest of the airplane, but considering the importance of the empennage to stability and control, the difficulty of ever getting back inside to prime it once it was closed out, and given that it was "paid for," we decided to take the weight hit and go with two-part epoxy.



While the primer was drying, we also started pre-assembly of the elevators and trim tab. This was a long day, but we were already starting to think about finishing in less than four days, so we pushed it. Having only one kit in the shop was really speeding things up!


Here is Mike from Alexander Tech Center showing us how to easily remove strips of the blue protective film using a blunt soldering gun, making it really easy to expose the rivet holes.

Builder Assist Program Day 1

06 Mar 2006: 10 hours each. This was day 1 of the Builder Assist Program. We elected to stay at the onsite dorms, and it was really great being able to stay so close to the shop. They are nothing fancy, but you don't have time for TV anyway! We lucked out, as there was only one other builder coming that week, and he cancelled at the last minute. So we had the whole facility to ourselves!

Day 1 consisted of a series of presentations in a classroom giving an overview of what we'd be doing, then we headed for ths shop. First, inventory.






The rest of the day we spent on pre-assembly, match-drilling, deburring, and dimpling. Two of worked the horizontal stabilizer, and one worked the vertical. It's important to "flute" the ribs, as the manufacturing process warps them. This is done using fluting pliars to flatten them out, as shown here.



Here are some more photos showing the spar and skin pre-assembly, and some trimming and grinding work. The little cylinders sticking out everywhere are clecos, which you insert into the rivet holes to hold the pieces in assembly.

What and Why

This blog is about three friends' experiences building a Van's RV-7A, one of the most popular kit-planes around today. The RV-7A is an all-aluminum, two-place, 200 mph, aerobatic, low-wing aircraft with a constant chord NACA 23013.5 airfoil section. We will probably build it with a 180 HP fuel-injected, four-cylinder, horizontally opposed, normally aspirated engine, with inverted fuel and oil systems. We are leaning towards a constant-speed, two-blade prop. We plan to have a modern, all-electric, glass-cockpit-type of panel, with a few "steam-gauge" backup instruments.

What motivated us to do this? One important reason is frustration with what we can afford through the certificated aircraft market. We hope to build the completed aircraft for around $100,000, which is certainly not cheap, but way less than even the closest thing available in in the certificated market. We like to think that each of us is paying about what we would for a sports car. Another reason is that we are all spacecraft engineers, who also love airplanes, and this project is giving us a chance to see the airplane side of our profession, in some small way. Although one of us got his Airframe & Powerplant repair certificate many years ago as part of his education at Embry-Riddle, he has never practiced as an A&P, and none of us have ever done anything like this before.

We have been at it since March, 2006. Given our lack of experience, we decided to attend a "builder-assist" program given at the Alexander Technical Center, in Griffin, Georgia, which is south of Atlanta. We had already decided that we would do a "Quick-Build" kit, in which much of the wings and fuselage are already finished. At the builder-assist course, we built up the empennage, that is, the horizontal and vertical stabilizers, elevators, rudder, and trim tab, from the "slow-build" empennage kit, that is, from pre-punched ribs and skins. It was a 3+ long busy days (they certainly don't build it for you!), but we left with a completed empennage, and a solid understanding of what we needed to do to finish our kit. All-in-all, a great experience, that we'd highly recommend. Since then, we have generally met two nights per week, after work, putting in about 4 hours each of real work. So far, we still look forward to it!

I expect that most of this blog will pretty closely track our builder's log, but I hope it will also be more than just a list of what we did. Even if we never get any useful comments, at least it will serve as a kind of diary for us to look back on, and remember what we did and why we did it. If it can inspire anyone out there in some way, that would be even better! Keep in mind though, that, like anything else you read on the web, don't go off and do something on your project just because we did it!! None of us is an aircraft engineer, so anything you take from this, use at your own risk!!!