Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

Worked on finishing up the vertical stabilizer. I installed grommets in the holes I made in the middle rib for possible future wiring. It should be easy enough to fish a wire through there, if needed, in the future.

Riveted on the rear spar. Two skin rivets on each side could not be reached by the squeezer because of interference with the hinge brackets. I ended up bucking them. This is the first time that I’ve shot and bucked a rivet by myself. Had to drill out twice, but overall they came out good. Must remember to keep pressure on the rivet gun.

Unfortunately, Van’s didn’t supply enough blind rivets for the middle rib. I guess I used them up on the “optional” blind rivets on the bottom of the rudder horn. I added this item to the punch list. I’ll order blind rivets the next time I need something from Van’s.

Except for two blind rivets and of course the fiberglass tip, the VS is now complete!!

I worked on finishing up the vertical stabilizer. I decided to drill a hole in the middle rib for wiring, just in case I decide to put something at the top of the VS. I bought two rubber grommets at Lowe’s that are 5/16″ inside diameter and need a 7/16″ hole. I used the unibit and enlarged the already existing tooling hole to 7/16″. Since I have two grommets, I put one in the front and one in the back. Not sure where I would want to run the wires. I didn’t bother drilling into the top or bottom rib. I can always do that later. I used a Q-tip to swap on some primer to the fresh holes and let it dry overnight.

Julie had some time to help me, so we riveted up the VS. I squeezed the rivets at the top and bottom edges. I’m leaving the rear spar just clecoed until the technical advisor comes by. It’s so cool to get another component done.

Riveted together the VS rear spar. Riveted the ribs to the front spar. Clecoed the skin to the partial skeleton. It’s great to be putting stuff together again.

I had to drill out a couple of rivets that squeezed too much to the side. I’m doing better than on the HS, but still having this problem. I’m sure it will get better with experience. I’m definitely good at drilling out rivets.

Sorted out all of the parts after priming and clecoed together the VS skeleton.

Etched and primed the rudder and VS. Since I did both at the same time, this entry is to spread some of the time to the VS. The rudder definitely had many more parts with all of the stiffeners, so it gets the majority of the time.

See the rudder entry from this same day for more details.

Total day was 5.0 hours.

Since I was tired of deburring holes and the new fly cutter arrived, I decided to try making the optional lightening holes in the VS rear spar stiffener. Got it all measured out and ready to drill. Luckily, I noticed at the last minute that I had dialed in the circumference measurement on the fly cutter instead of the radius. I almost made a 3″ hole instead of 1.5″. Here’s the fly cutter in action.

Unfortunately, the fly cutter only goes down to 1.75″ holes. I just used a unibit to make 3/4″ holes instead of the 1.5″ holes. Smaller certainly won’t hurt. Here’s the finished product. Not sure the few ounces I saved was worth all of the hassle, but it was a learning experience.

Dimpled the holes in the VS skin. Used the squeezer around the edge and the C-frame in the middle.

The last work item before priming the VS parts is to make the lightening holes in the rear spar doubler. Then I wait for good weather.

Deburred holes on the VS skin. Didn’t build last night, as I was at the local EAA chapter meeting. Looks like a good group.

Started prepping the VS skin. Smoothed and deburred edges of the skin. Removed the plastic from the inside and along the rivet lines on the outside.