Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I drilled the hinges to the other aft seat skin, deburred everything, and then riveted all of the hinges on. I tried using the C-frame and dead blow hammer at first, but quickly remembered that is very difficult to do with AD4 rivets. I’ve read about other builders using their rivet gun with the C-frame, but that is not possible with the one from Cleaveland. Instead, I just pulled out the 3X gun. I put the skin in a vise and riveted away. No problem. Some people make a fancy loop for the seat hinge pins, but I just went with the old-school 90° bend.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier. It’s better late than never! I used a cleco holder in the SportAir class way back when, but didn’t like it. It had little holes in it, such that you have to use the cleco pliers to put the clecos in it. For this one, I drilled 3/8″ holes about an inch apart. The clecos just sit in there. It’s very handy to be able to grab and insert clecos with one hand.

I had an opportunity to tour the Seattle Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities today. There were controllers from many of the local facilites, Seattle Tower, Boeing Tower, Renton Tower, Seattle Center, and Whidbey Approach. They all spoke for a few minutes about their facility and took questions. We then got to tour the Seattle TRACON. They have a fairly new system called STARS. It’s a very cool radar system. It was definitely worthwhile to spend a few hours to see who and what is on the other side of the radio.

I wish I had pictures to show, but there was no picture taking allowed (at least not without special permission from the facility manager).

After having a tough time last night, tonight’s session went great. I started off by chipping away at the prep for the top skins. I deburred the J stiffeners for half an hour.

After that I did some fun stuff. I pulled out the aft seat skins and some hinge material that is used to attach the seat backs. I cut the hinge material into 15-1/2″ chunks on the band saw and had just enough. I pilot drilled the holes in the hinges to #40. I found it helpful to set up a little fence on the drill press to make sure I was drilling 1/4″ from the edge.

The next step was to figure out the placement of the hinges. The plans are a confusing mess of measurements, as they always are at first glance. I thought I had everything laid out just right, but a few of the measurements weren’t matching the scale drawing. That’s not a huge surprise, as sometimes the drawings are off by a little bit. And then I realized I mistakenly thought one measurement was from the center of some holes, when it was actually to the edge of the seat skin. After correcting that, everything lined up just like the drawing. I’m glad I found that!

I drilled the hinges to the seat skin on the left side and stopped for the evening.

I installed the necessary platenuts on the baggage bulkhead and pop riveted on the shoulder harness cable wear blocks. Those little square washers are a pain. I screwed up the direction on one of the pop rivets and tried to fix it. I’ve had pretty good luck in the past drilling out pop rivets, but that one was a bear. It was firmly stuck in the washer. I ended up making a new square washer, which turned into a frustrating comedy of errors. It was just one of those nights where anything that can go wrong, did. It all turned out OK in the end. The baggage bulkheads are done except for paint.

I deburred the bottom half of the baggage bulkhead and drilled the shoulder harness cable wear blocks to the bulkhead.

Deburred the top baggage bulkhead and started fabricating the shoulder harness cable wear blocks.

Lately, I’ve been trying to get more hours in. It’s a little early to be estimating a completion date, but I’m thinking I might actually finish this thing next summer. And I’d like to finish at the beginning of summer vs. the end, so I can have better weather for flying off the test hours.

I didn’t get much done today due to spending a nice Easter over at my inlaws.

I riveted the bulkhead gussets. As with everything else on the fuselage, I used two different yokes on those things and still ended up shooting one rivet on each.

Finished riveting the firewall gussets. I couldn’t reach the forward most 2 rivets on the longerons with the regular yoke, so I just bucked them.

The canopy decks are all painted, so I riveted them together and clecoed them to the fuselage along with the gussets. I tried to figure out a combination of squeezer yokes that would work, but they are going to need bucking.

The last thing I did for the day was remove the top skins. With those off, I could finish the last two rivets on the aft deck and rivet on the F-709 bulkhead.

Lots of random stuff all over the place today. Unfortunately, there’s not much visual progress lately. Lots is getting done, though.

I worked on the baggage bulkhead. I drilled up the sides of the lower half. I carefully placed the top half in place and drilled it to the F-706 bulkhead. I used the nut plate jig to drill holes for the nut plates and then riveted them on. Sitting in the baggage compartment is not comfortable.

I fitted the tunnel cover and baggage side forward skins. The tunnel cover is not fitting well, as you can see in the picture. I double checked the plans and they show it fitting in front of the baggage bulkhead. I notice on Dan’s site that he put it behind the bulkhead. I’ll try that. Neither the plans or instructions mention that the forward baggage side skins need a little trimming. It only took me a few minutes to figure that out. It all seems to fit fine. I’m going to hold off permanently installing any covers or floors until I get the wiring paths figured out.

I pulled out the firewall gussets and riveted them to the longerons. I didn’t have much time to spend on the project tonight, so that’s as far as I got.