Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I located and drilled the shoulder harness anchors to the longerons. They get set aside for now until after the top skins are riveted on.

I next messed with the bellcrank support. I removed the angle from the rib and drilled the top 4 holes to the F-706 bulkhead. These holes also get dimpled. After that I riveted the angle to the support.

The final thing I did was to rivet the angle at the top of the F-711 bulkhead. The plans to say to leave that until after the side skins are riveted, which they are.

Since the weather was so nice, I took a short flight today in a C172. Well, it started out nice. When I was pre-flighting the plane, the wind was variable but only 6 knots. By the end of my flight, the wind was gusting to 20 knots. It was mostly down the runway, but that much wind causes a lot of mechanical turbulence around the buildings and hills around Boeing Field. It was a tricky landing, that I pulled off nicely. It’s good to get practice on the tricky ones.

I did a bunch of work on the fuselage. I deburred the aft deck parts that I drilled yesterday. I fitted and drilled the canopy rails, canopy decks, and the gussets at F-705. I spent a lot of time double and triple measuring. I don’t want to screw up drilling through the longerons at this point, if I can help it. (7/7/2005 note: You’ll notice that I fit the forward canopy decks at this stage, eventhough the plans don’t call for it. It turns out that it’s a little better to wait and install these later.)

I also drilled one firewall gusset. The angle that the gusset made with the firewall angle wasn’t quite right, so I added a little bend in the vise. It was a perfect fit after that. The left gusset was not cut right at the factory. I called up Van’s and they are sending a free replacement.

It’s cool seeing this stuff go together. The number of parts left on the shelves is diminishing rapidly.

I spent most of the day sailing with Steve. The weather was just too nice not to get outside. The sun was shining, the temp was over 60 degrees, and the wind was blowing 10-15 knots. Perfect sailing weather.

I did manage to get a few things done on the plane. I finished up the remaining riveting on the aft fuselage. I also noticed a few spots around the F-704/longeron area that needed riveting where the sawhorse was in the way previously.

After that I tweaked the level of the fuselage some more so that it was exactly 0.0 degrees side to side and fore/aft.

I then drilled the aft deck to the longerons. The instructions say to look at drawing 26 for the aft deck. That drawing is almost useless. Look at drawing 27A. There you’ll notice two spacers that Dan mentions on his site. I fabricated those spacers and back-drilled them from the aft deck.

There’s still a couple of rivets left on the bottom. However, Julie is leaving for the weekend and I want to proceed on the fuselage. I decided it was time to flip it. Adele moved sawhorses around for me, but I basically flipped it by myself. Very carefully!! I just grabbed the fuselage around the firewall and carefully rotated it. The tail just rolled on its saw horse with one lift and move over by Adele.

Passenger #1!!!!

More pics of the canoe. (Edit: I discovered a few months later that I riveted the two outer floor stiffeners in the wrong orientation. This caused a minor problem with two of the covers for the F-704 bulkhead.)

I’ve got a ton of little things to work on at this point. I finished riveting the rear bulkheads up to the longerons. I also noticed there’s an area at the back without top skins. The longerons can be riveted from there all the way back.

I also worked on getting the fuselage absolutely level in order to fit the back deck. I used the firewall angle and the center section to determine if the fuselage was level.

Messed around deburring and drilling the various gussets that attach to the longerons.

The firewall gussets F-695-L and -R do not look the same. I discovered this a while ago, but figured it was no big deal. Two sides are about 1/4″ different. I drilled the gussets following the plans and then held them to the firewall/longeron intersection. The right one looks good, but the left one will not fit. The angle on the gusset isn’t right and the holes don’t line up. I called Van’s and they are sending a replacement. This is one of the very few parts that I’ve found a problem with.

This is what the massively-simplified, VFR-only panel would look like:

I’m still not sure which way I’ll go, but this is an option. It’s down to a Dynon D-10A, SL-40 radio (no VOR), simple PMA-3000 intercom (since there’s only one radio), Garmin portable 296 GPS, Garmin GTX-327 transponder, ACS 2002 engine monitor (or whatever they’re calling it now), a Trio autopilot, AOA Sport indicator and a couple of back-up instruments.

When upgrading later, I’d get the latest whiz-bang EFIS, but keep the Dynon as a back-up. Sell the SL-40 and get the SL-30 to add VOR. Sell the intercom, buy a full-blown audio panel. Sell the 296 and get a panel-mounted IFR GPS. And possibly upgrade the GTX-327 to a GTX-330, if that looks like the best option for traffic. Maybe get an altitude hold.

I’ve been thinking more seriously about the major purchases coming up. I’m still leaning toward a Mattituck engine, probably a TMX-360, 180hp, fuel injection, horizontal sump, and FADEC. Mahlon has been very helpful with information and answering my questions. I’ll probably order it this summer.

The second major purchase is the prop. I’m definitely going constant speed. I like the Whirlwind prop. It’s light and looks cool. The only drawback is that it’s relatively new, and has a shorter time between overhauls. The tried-and-true alternative is the Hartzell.

The last major set of purchases is the avionics. I’ve been all over the map on this one. For a while now, I’ve been looking seriously at the Chelton. It’s a very nice unit, rock solid. Lately I’ve been wondering if it’s overkill for my mostly VFR flying profile. I want to get an IFR ticket eventually, but that may be a few years down the road. Budget-wise it might be better to install a good VFR panel now and then upgrade in a few years to IFR, if I even still want to pursue that. That will give me a few years to save up for the nice, expensive toys.

Passed the 900 hour mark!! I’m hoping that this is the halfway point on the project. We’ll see. Van’s estimates 1500 hours to complete the kit, but I think 1800 hours is probably more realistic.

I worked on squeezing the baggage ribs to the F-705 bulkhead. Only a few can be squeezed. I riveted a few more with the 3X gun. The rivets on the center ribs required the offset rivet set, and they ended up leaning over. I drilled them out and will wait for Julie’s help to finish the rest.

In the meantime, I pulled out the gussets that attach the F-705 bulkhead to the longerons. For the tip-up canopy, a square hole is needed for the latch to reach through, I think. I measured, drilled the corners, cut the sides with a coping saw, and filed and sanded them to perfection.

Finally finished off the seat backs.

I used to be intimidated by the rivet gun. Now I’d have to say this is my favorite method of riveting. It’s very satisfying to smash a 1/8″ rivet like butter.

Made a short sawhorse to go under the F-704 once I flip the canoe over. I pretty much followed Dan’s design and dimensions using a 2×4 and wood left over from the crates. It was fun to work with wood for a change and actually start and finish a “component” in one hour. I intentially put the “FX” and “$$” on the outside just for kicks.