Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

Prepared VS ribs and spars. Such a simple phrase, but it takes so long. I disassembled everything, then deburred all of the holes in the ribs and spars, followed by smoothing and deburring the edges. I dimpled the holes for attaching the skins and for the area on the rear spar that attaches to the fuselage. Counter-sunk the holes in the lower rear spar stiffener. Also smoothed the edges of the stiffener, which took a while.

This shows how the bottom of the rear spar and stiffener are dimpled and countersunk to allow for flush head rivets where the VS attaches to the fuselage.

Drilled the VS ribs to the spars. Clecoed on the skins and final drilled the skin to the ribs and spars.

Clecoed together the VS spars and ribs. Drilled out the hinge brackets and the rear spar stiffener. I can already tell this part is going to be a breeze compared to the HS.

Started on the vertical stabilizer. Clecoed together the rear spar and stiffener. Prepared the ribs. Read ahead in the instructions.