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Test picture 1

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Picture size

OK got pictures to post for the first time but why in the world are they so huge. Any thought on getting them smaller ??

Thanks
 
I didn't make it.....

I had 2 weeks vacation over the holidays and had a goal of moving to the airport by the end. I didn't make it. I had a dozen things on the list and 3 big ones.

HOWEVER, I was very close. I had a setback on the instrument panel lettering that cost me a week (the whole thing wrinkled when I sprayed the clear top coat on) Tell me I didn't spout a few choice words THAT time.

As of now, redoing the panel is THE LAST item I want to finish before moving.

In order to create a FEELING of completion, I yanked the blue vinyl that I have been looking at for the last 7 years. Here are the resulting gratuitous shots.


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Just ordered my Finishing Kit,
A friend has graciously offered to pick it up and drop it off in my hanger so I will see it in 5 1/2 months. I cant wait!

-david
 
Correct must be the red thing you are asking about, which is Rod Bower's Ram Air...the Alternator is not visible in this pic.
 
At Last... Reportable Status!

Finished riveting the HS and VS this weekend! I had just over half of the interior riveting done on just the right side HS skin over several short sessions after work last week. Friday was my regular day off every other week, so I (mostly) finished riveting the HS then. I must need to work on my ergonomics, as I had to spend almost all day Saturday with a heating pad on my lower back. Only toward the very end of the day was I able to go out and finish the 4 rivets I missed - the ones securing the HS-405 inboard main ribs to the main spar.

Today I took Karen to the airport and got her a ride in Hal and CarolAnn Lyons' RV-7. She's not a pilot, but she will occasionally take the controls of the 170 on a smooth day, so Hal let her get a feel for his -7. She was predictably quite surprised (in a good way, it turns out :cool:) by the contol response of the RV. She came back with a big RV-grin (no camera!:eek:), which only reinforced my resolve to "git 'er done!". By the time we got home about 2:00, my back was feeling much better so I gathered up all my previously primed VS parts and went to work. Less than 6 hours later - DONE!

Karen's graciously letting me borrow a spare bedroom pending my building a rack or hanging apparatus for safe storage at the hangar.

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I'm now about 115 hours into the project, and in addtion to having the HS and VS structurally complete, I've got all the rudder and elevator stiffeners fabricated and drilled to the skins, all rudder parts final drilled and dimpled (the AEX trailing edge wedge still needs to be countersunk), rudder skins and spar primed and ready to rivet after priming the ribs and stiffeners. I've also dimpled the elevator stiffeners and fabricated and drilled the elevator counterweights. Going out on a limb, I'm thinking 3-4 more weeks to go on the empennage, then I'll be ready for Chapter 1000's fiberglass guru George Gennuso to show me the ropes on that process. Oh, yeah, I ordered the wings and fuselage kits about a week ago, and I'm on Tony Partain's schedule for late March/early April.:D
 
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It?s here! It?s here!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

*coughcough* uhum?.(in a more manly and deeper voice)
I mean, yeah it arrived. It?s my fuse kit from Vans. No big deal right? :D

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Engine Start

Partial RV Grin Today. Everything went OK. No Leaks. Either firewall forward or in the pilots seat :eek:

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Congrats! Hopefully you already fit your wingtips. I did my first start and taxi a month ago but I still had wing tip work left to go. Man, I didn't want more fiberglass work now...especially after the first engine start. It kind of spoils you!

I reluctantly finally started my wing tip work. I just finished my right tip yesterday after about 15 hours of work. Hopefully the left one will go faster.

You, like me, are very close!!! Let's get 'em flying!!
 
ready for paint

Finished the in-shop build tonight! Did the final touches on my windscreen fairing and cleaned everything up. I went through my builders manual and I have nothing left except paint, final assembly, wieght and balance, ground work, inspection and first flight. Well, I still need to do the wing-to-fuselage plumbing when I get to the paint shop. I don't have room at home to reattach the wings. Paint shop is at another RV-7 guys shop where he has the room.

8 years and 2 months to this point. Hopefully I'll be smashing bugs within 3 months.

I have my registration and need to go through the paper work to see what else I need to fill out.

Jekyll,
7A, slider
IO-360
 
Wings in cradle

Both wings are now in the cradle, almost done except for the bottom skins. I have to wait for the French Inspector to see the inside of the wings before being allowed to close them.

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Next step: ailerons and flaps, Dynon pitot, Dynon roll servo. Starting on that next week.

It's all been good fun so far :)
 
W&B Day

Up on the scales.
1109lbs which I understand is right in line with an IFR outfitted A model with FI 180 and CS prop.
No frills in the cabin. All fibergless in place but obviously not finished paint.

Talked to the FSDO and he is "waitin' on me". Amazingly refreshing. :D
I'll be fiddling with paperwork tonight and tomorrow.

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Nice paint Larry!!! I inspiration for sure.

After nearly a year since receiving the kits, my Slow Build Empennage is complete sans glass.



Now on to the Wings!
 
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Love your work shop!

But:

It's to bright, need sun glasses.
It's too clean! Where's all the stuff on the floor?
It's over organized. WOW

It's not like mine :(

Seriously, Keep it that way and you will do well.
 
Canopy Finally Done!!

Big day today... I am offically calling calling the canopy done! I've been dreading the canopy since I started building my 7A. Just a few minor things to finish FWF and I'll be ready to hall her to the airport in a week or two.

I like how the Targa strip looks, but not sure I'd do it again.... it was way more work than I expected.

I don't know about everyone else, but I had some pretty large gaps at the "10 and 2" position of the front skin of the tip-up canopy. I thought about welding the holes shut and redrilling them, but I don't think that would help much as the center of the skin lines up almost perfectly.

I'm really glad I took the time to build these up with fiberglass now before I am flying. It only took a couple of nights and while I'm no expert, they look pretty good to me now.



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Even though I haven't touched the RV in 10 months now I have made alot of progress. All the big ticket items have been ordered, all that's left is to finish assembly I guess. Sounds easy :)

Also we picked out the final paint scheme and Interior yesterday. Interior will be ordered in the next few weeks.

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What do you think?

-david
 
GOT MY PINK SLIP TODAY!!!

:D:D Thanks to the CLT FSDO for very very fast and cordial service.

Now its time to get ME ready to fly. Look for a grin in April.

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That's awesome, Bill. Can't wait to see you el norte again.

STONE!! It's great to hear from you! You betcha' that a flight to DMW will be early in Phase 2.

For the rest of you folks, Mike was my mentor early in construction and also the provider of the first RV rides for me and my wife.

Our funny story is that when my wife was exiting Mikes RV6 after her first ride she looked at me and said "What are you doing here? Get to the shop and drive rivets!!" :D
 
And I thought I could only build Sandwiches....

So last thurs on the 30th I got a call from my wife telling me "Its here, It's here!!" And so it was, the empennage: My march Christmas present.:)



Now number one I can't believe what's in the boxes is +6 -3 G rated after I get through with it. Maybe it will be +1 -.5 after I am through...

So I am working diligently and one week and one day later I have a horizontal stabilizer and a vertical stabilizer!! So I have to ask since it varies SOOO much...
How am I doing on time? If y'all come back with "you should be done in 3 years at that pace" I'm just going to cry... I like the build BUT I wanna fly!!


My daughter seems to be saying "Look and what my daddy can build! All I thought he could do is sandwiches..."


Oh and by the way Van's called and they seem to have an extra QB wings and fuselage sitting around collecting dust!
"Well sure I will take it Anne!" I thought I was going to have to wait 60 days for the QB.
So before I even started my empennage some nice Philippino was whipping my fuse and wings into place!

Tony Partain is already set up to bring it to me no crate included. Whew....

One last thing, Bruce on VAF, Boomer as he is known to some of you, loaned me his pneumatic squeezer for my build. What a great guy!
He also gave me my first RV flight and took me over that day to work on the RV-1 and be part of history with Jay, Walt, Bruce and
picture man Ernie! Great community and people here.

I can't wait to fly!!!
 
Busy weekend

I hate this part. It seems like it will never end. But it did and I'm very happy to now turn this pile of parts into the center fuselage.
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I started the Wings this week.

Glad there are guys ahead of me so I can learn from them!

Right behind you Jason! I got my SB wing and fuselage kits inventoried, and the right spar is on the bench, planning on making some chips this evening (too bad the spars can't be used in their full anodized glory...). I noticed you don't seem to be using the nutplates to pilot the countersink as the instructions suggest. I don't care much for that idea either, and plan to make a pilot hole jig (like Sam B's below) out of some thick stock from my scrap bin.

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I noticed you don't seem to be using the nutplates to pilot the countersink as the instructions suggest.

Yup, I used Rudi's method of a long piece of 1/16" aluminum angle that I used on the rudder TE. Worked like a charm. Got both spars sunk quickly and chatter free. I hope to have the Nutplates on Saturday after spot priming all the holes.
 
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Progress report

A couple of issues have come up with getting this project done. First, there are no empty hangers at my local airport in which to move the 7 into. Second, due to the first issue, I have decided to paint the entire project before I move it to the airport.

Worked on it all weekend and added some photos to the Picasa site in my signature. Making lots of progress :D
 
N964JB First Engine Start

Hey - big night tonight... first engine start for the AeroSport Power IO-375-M1 in my RV-7A. Once I hit the starter, she sputtered for a couple of seconds and roared to life!.

I ran her for around 3:30, until CHT began to approach 300. As soon as I pulled the mixture, she shut right down.

I have a few little things to finish up, but should be ready for an inspection in a week or two!.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SPyBtnx7GA


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Drive a stake through its evil heart -Baffles.

Or, How I Got My Mojo Back.

I spent the weekend locked in mortal combat with the baffles. Since I'm here to write about it, you can assume I won.

I was able to get over the hump of fitting the front baffles with my weird front-governor configuration, and have progressed to trimming the tops of the baffles to conform to the top cowl.

I've still got a ways to go, but the current state of things is this:
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Details are here:
http://stjohn.openbar.com/airplane/?p=860
Always cut off less than you think you should. You can always cut off more.
 
Ok so I am actually a little ashamed of my slow progress....I am at 2600+/_hrs on a QB RV-7A. :(:( with a projected 5/600 hours to go.

I can't say exactly why it has gone so slowly but I know that I am quite methodical and meticulous - OCD actually and sometimes spend twice as much time in research and understanding each step than I do actually doing it! I just can't shake this feeling of guilt and shame at taking so long when friends and builders around me have built slow build 7's in less time! Anyways, all I can do is what I do and look forward to the final day's work like you can not believe.

I am at approximately 85% completed and am currently working on the front deck structure and canopy frame and then the dreaded canopy. Here's my most recent progress as posted in the panel thread.....

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and how she is looking overall...

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Hey wingnutzster...don't feel bad. My build took me 11 years and 5 months from empennage kit to first flight. (I really don't know how many hours I have into it because I sort of lost track after my insurance company said they no longer pay for time if the project gets destroyed.)

Reasons for the lengthy build are many, including illnesses, business trips, vacations, and the desire to remain married to the same woman who was with me when the project started! I also think I would have been flying earlier if my tools didn't keep hiding from me when I wasn't looking.

Jim Bower
St. Louis
RV-6A N143DJ - Flying at last!
 
Kind words Jim, I am almost reassured because I know of a few folk who have also taken a number of years to complete their projects.... but that said, working full time from 8 to 6 everyday with all equipment, supplies etc provided as and when necessary I really feel I should be further along in this project and am concerned with the really difficult tasks up ahead the pace may slow even more. I am doing it completely alone though (I work better alone but there is no doubt in my mind the pace would double with a helper). Anyways, I must say I am really enjoying the experience and am proud of what I have achieved so far.
 
Painting.

Still trying to figure out the graphics for the sides but should have that done and painting in a few more weeks.


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