Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I removed the F-707 bulkhead from the bottom skin and fluted the bottom of it. That made it fit much better.

I pulled out the stringers and trimmed the ends per the plans. That took much longer than I expected. It’s kind of difficult to swing around 8′ stringers in a garage that is starting to get pretty full.

I then set the stringers in the bulkheads and started clecoing on the side skins. I followed Dan’s advice of clecoed along the bottom/side skin seam first. That worked pretty well. Then I tried working up the bulkheads. That was not working at all until Julie helped me out. It’s much easier with one person aligning holes from the inside and the other putting in clecos from the outside.

Once that was all put together, I grabbed the tail skin assembly. I slid the stringers forward and dropped the tail skin assembly in place. I put in just a couple of clecos and slid the stringers all the way to the back. The stringers look great. The aft-most bulkheads are going to need some flange tweaking.

Julie had to mark the occasion with a group shot.

After getting all of the bulkheads assembled, I figured it would be fun to cleco the bottom tail skin to the F-711 and F-712 bulkheads. Well, it’s not that fun. Following the advice on other builder sites, I carefully bent the tabs to match the contour of the skin. That helped quite a bit, but it’s still a tough fit. That is a really thick skin, and it’s not quite curved enough.

And then for some real fun, I got out the bottom aft bulkhead skin and clecoed on the F-708 and F-707 bulkheads. It’s a bit of a trick to get the built-in J-channels on the bottom skin into the slots on the bulkheads. Once I got that figured out and was clecoing thing together, I figured out that I didn’t flute the bottom of the F-707 bulkhead. It’s not sitting on there very well, so fluting is definitely indicated.

That’s where I quit for the night.

The replacement seat ribs showed up from Van’s, so I should go back and work on the center section a bit more. I’d like to get the seat and baggage ribs deburred so I can prime them outdoors before winter really sets in. Hopefully then I won’t have to prime anything major for a while.