Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I verified the size of the wire cut out in the rudder bottom tip, enlarged it a bit, and then attached the tip to the rudder with pop rivets. The empennage tips are now all attached.

I moved on to the cowl camlocs. Milspec was very cool about swapping out the -3S studs that I got in the group buy a while back with shorter -1S studs. A+ on customer service. I figured out how to put the pin back into the adjustable camlocs along the bottom. I screwed back the camlocs a ways and then put the -1S studs into the cowl. They are a little tricky to put in. The collar on the stud tends to slip down into the craw of the tool. I got all of the bottom and top studs put in and the cowl re-attached. She looks very plane-like with all the various parts attached (minus the wings of course).

I re-adjusted all the studs flush with the cowl surface (or actually just slightly proud), removed the cowls, and pulled the pins from the camlocs. Done deal. I’m glad I went with the camlocs. The cowl is very easy to install/remove with these things.

I still had some time left in the evening, so I started working on the GPS antenna mount. I’m going to put it under one of the fiberglass forward hatches. I made a little shelf that I’ll attach to the hatch. Only got part way through the fabrication.

I’ve been putting in a lot of hours lately (for me). It feels like I’m in the homestretch and I’m sprinting for the finish line.

I had no idea when I started the empennage fairing that it would take so long to finish. Tonight I countersunk the holes in the fiberglass fairing, attached nut plates to the fuselage, trimmed around the aft end of the fairing, and trimmed the gap covers that go underneath the horizontal stabilizer. In the process I had to remount the HS (again). I think it is now finally done.

I started messing around with the bottom rudder tip again, but didn’t get far. I just need to enlarge the hole for the wiring a little bit and then I can pop rivet it in place.

The empennage fairing is taking more time than I expected. I did a bunch of tapping, drilling, deburring, and dimpling, but mainly worked on getting all of the nut plates attached to the HS, VS, and tail of the fuselage.

Back to the business of finishing the plane after a small diversion yesterday. I started with something small, attaching the UHMW tape to the flaps. I previously marked the location of the edge of the wing top skin with the flaps in trail. I put the tape right along that line.

Next it was time to make a mess. I did some final trimming of the empennage fairing with a cut off wheel, the stationary belt sander, some files, and sand paper. While I was making fiberglass dust, I also cut a hole in the rudder bottom tip for the light wires. The next step was to drill it to the VS, HS, and fuselage. I also worked on drilling the gap covers that go under the HS. Of course that meant the HS had to come off yet again so I could drill out the rivets that Vans neglected to mention shouldn’t be installed. I dimpled the cover, countersunk the holes in the longeron and started to tap them. It’s a little tricky keeping track of which holes should be countersunk and which shouldn’t.

I’m actually glad I’m working on this in the garage rather than the cold, dark hangar. I’ll move the plane when I really have nothing left other than mating the wings.

Got up early today and prepped the plane for the move, removing the tail feathers, installing the seal at the front of the canopy, and a few other odds and ends.

I borrowed a trailer for the move which has moved many RVs. I even measured it before driving it to my house, but didn’t discover the problem until the trailer was sitting near the plane. The tri-gear legs sweep back interfering with the wheel wells. The trailer has moved taildraggers, but I don’t see how a nosegear could fit in there.

Just to be really, really sure, I wheeled the plane up to the trailer. No way it would fit.

Back up the driveway. At least I’m getting some good practice pushing the plane around.

It definitely got a lot of attention of the people driving by. Guess I’ll have to resort to a flat bed tow truck.

Steve got me a cool hangar warming present. It’ll be a perfect addition, once I get the plane there. Thanks man.

I managed to do a few little things in the evening, reinstalling the HS and hooking up the ground wire for the rudder light.

Last night was a work dinner, so tried to make up time tonight before the move tomorrow. The one-sided #6 nut plates arrived, so I finished up the backing plate for the VS tip and used some JB Weld to hold it in place. Once that set up a bit, I installed the VS tip with some #6 screws.

I finished up securing wires behind the baggage area, secured the tip of the ELT antenna, and installed the rear window.

The really big item for the night was Julie helped me finish off the last rivets on the forward top skin. It involved me crawling in under the panel. Not comfortable. I had to remove the adle clamp at the top of the vent tube in order to get to some of them. The forward few 426AD4 rivets also needed to be slightly longer than the call outs. Nothing very difficult, just time consuming and uncomfortable. Looks great to have it finished.

I had some time in the morning, so I primed the links for the rudder cables. By evening they had dried. I climbed in the cockpit and installed them between the rudder pedals and rudder cables. The rudder is now fully functional. Cool.

I drilled a hole in the back of the bottom rudder tip for the light/strobe combination unit. A 1-1/8″ hole turned out to be perfect. After drilling holes for the screws, I mixed up a batch of JB Weld to hold the nuts in place. It was quite a trick to get the nuts in the right place and get the screws threaded through. I put some oil on the screws so hopefully they come out again.

While I was messing with the rudder light, I worked on the wiring for it. I installed connectors for the strobe and nav lights. I ran a local ground wire into the fuselage, which I’ll attach to a screw in one of the bulkheads. I decided to run the wires through the gap at the bottom of the rearmost bulkhead. I put some heatshrink over the wires to protect them, and I’ll probably also put a glob of RTV in there.

With the top camloc strip in place from yesterday, I installed all of the camlocs with the supplied CherryMax pop rivets.

It snowed again overnight accumulating 2″ and was still snowing through the morning. Since school was canceled, I decided to stay home as well.

I mixed up a batch of epoxy and flox and installed the elevator tips. The epoxy glues the tip to the counterbalance weight. I also filled in a little bit on the VS and HS tips and later riveted in the HS tips. They all look really good.

I also messed with the elevator trim wiring a bit. I ran the wire through the HS and into a separate hole in the elevator. I’m using a Molex Microfit 2.0 connector, so I attached the pins and sockets for that. I’ll wait to put on the plug until the elevator is on for good. I temporarily stuck in the two pins for the motor and confirmed that the stick and panel controls are working. Turns out the panel switch was upside down, so I corrected that.

I next installed the VS and rudder and worked on the connectors between the rudder pedals and rudder cables. I climbed in, set the pedals where I wanted them and then measured the distance needed, 3″. I thought I only needed 2 of them, but actually had to make 4. Working with steel is not nearly as nice as aluminum. Just need to wait for some better weather to paint them.

The next task was to make sure absolutely everything was done underneath the forward top skin. I discovered I hadn’t put cotter pins yet in the canopy release mechanism. I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to put the handle in the panel yet, but the rest of the mechanism is there and functional.

I did one last inspection and vacuum and clecoed the forward top skin in place. Julie helped with the riveting and bucked the rivets through the forward hatches. There are certainly some very difficult rivets, especially with the canopy release stuff in the way. There’s still one rivet that I haven’t figured out how to buck. We did all the rivets I could from the outside and I squeezed the rivets along the front edge with the camloc strip in place. The last few will have to wait for tomorrow as it got too late into the evening.

I also removed the few camloc studs that I installed in the lower cowl so I can send them back for some shorter ones. Milspec is going to swap out the 3S studs for 1S.

I’m glad we had a snow day. I’m not sure how else I would have finished all this stuff before the big move day on Saturday.

I wasn’t feeling very good all day. I mostly napped during the evening. I did manage to get out to the garage and rivet the top rudder tip in place. Looks great.

Julie also helped me dimple the last holes in the end of the elevator. I made a jig out of a spare chunk of aluminum and drove the male dimple die into it. Worked great.

Didn’t get much done today. Adele had an indoor soccer game, and we had some guests visiting. Steve dropped by to work on his panel project a little more and helped me re-fill the right brake line. I made a little fitting for the top of the brake reservoir so the overflow could be easily caught with a jar. I then pumped some more fluid into the brake fitting. The bubbles all went out. I used a straw to reduce the level in the reservoir a little bit and called it done.

I also worked a little more on the emp tips, dimpling the skins and gluing on the backing strips with some RTV. I also drilled and attached some #6 nut plates for the VS tip. I decided to make it removable. Almost done with the tips.