John and Ellen's RV-7 Stuff

John and Ellen's RV-7 Build Log and Things

Here's my RV-7 build log! I'm just getting started but I hope to fill these pages up with tips, tricks and helpful links.

Latest Updates: March 24, 2006

The New House

In January of 2005, we decided that we wanted to build an airplane. We were renting at the time, and there was no way we'd ever get it going in the place we were at, so we decided to buy a house. Here are some pics of how we transformed the garage into an airplane factory.

March 20, 2005 :: First day in the new house
March 21, 2005 :: Second day...more garage work. Looking good

Horizontal Stabilizer

April 18, 2005 :: Prime more HS pieces
April 19, 2005 :: Rivet the rear spar
April 20, 2005 :: Not exactly sure, but I think it had something to do with priming
April 24, 2005 :: Fly with Paul. MAJOR progress
April 25, 2005 :: Got the skins on
April 26, 2005 :: Mark came buy and helped me drive a few at lunch
April 27, 2005 :: No tips yet, but it's pretty much done

Vertical Stabilizer

April 30, 2005 :: Started on the vertical stabilizer
May 1, 2005 :: Lightening holes and prime structure
May 2, 2005 :: Mashed some rivets
May 6, 2005 :: Finished the structure. Got the skins on.
May 7, 2005 :: Finished the VS!
Note: At this point, we took a break from building. We were considering a move back to the bay area. Also, things heated up at work and I ran out of time. All of that is straightened out now, though, and I'm back to it!!!!
September 25, 2005 :: www.ballofshame.com comes online :) I finally figured out an easy way to do a web site...so here it is. Now back to building!

Rudder

September 30, 2005 :: Started on the rudder stiffeners
October 1, 2005 :: Finished stiffeners and matched drilled the skins
October 2, 2005 :: Clean workshop and dimple stiffeners
October 5, 2005 :: Rivet stiffeners to the left skin
October 8, 2005 :: Build rudder frame and assemble
October 9, 2005 :: Disassemble, debur and prime
October 10, 2005 :: Looked at the fiberglass tips for the first time
October 11, 2005 :: Rivet the rudder frame
October 12, 2005 :: Start riveting the skins

Tail II. Don't ask...I don't want to talk about it....just accept

Horizontal Stabilizer

October 27, 2005 :: Fedex drops off Tail 2
November 5, 2005 :: Get the spar and spar caps ready
November 6, 2005 :: Assemble and match drill the left half. Also, realized one of my screwups and moved on to the VS
November 22, 2005 :: Back to work on the HS
November 23, 2005 :: Finished match drilling the right half
November 24, 2005 :: Deburred the structure. Cooked dinner. Happy Thanksgiving!
November 25, 2005 :: Dimpled structure. Found that I forgot to match drill some holes. No biggie...just took a second to fix it
November 27, 2005 :: Got everything primed. This took forever for some reason. I'm just slow today :)
November 28, 2005 :: Deburred HS skins. Mysterious cleco scratches/gouges on ONE skin....hmmm. Bad day, perhaps? Dunno..
December 9, 2005 :: Started riveting the HS rear spar.
December 10, 2005 :: Finished the rear and front spars
December 11, 2005 :: Screwed up the front spar.... :::sigh:::
December 30, 2005 :: Home to NY!
January 6, 2006 :: Unscrewup the front spar
January 8, 2006 :: Start riveting the left skin
January 9, 2006 :: Continue riveting the left skin
January 12, 2006 :: Continue riveting the left skin
January 13, 2006 :: Declared the \"left\" skin to now be the \"right\" skin
January 14, 2006 :: Started on the left...er...right....um...the OTHER skin
January 15, 2006 :: No fiberglass work yet, but the HS is DONE.
March 25, 2006 :: Test fit the elevators. Started countersinking the wing spar

Vertical Stabilizer

November 11, 2005 :: Start on the VS. Got the spar doubler all nice and ready
November 12, 2005 :: Assemble and match drill the VS
November 13, 2005 :: Prime and start rivetting the VS. Decided to wait at this point for a tech counselor check, so I moved on to the rudder.
November 19, 2005 :: First tech counselor inspection. Started rivetting the VS. Broke stuff. Very productive day :)
November 20, 2005 :: Took a picture of my broken part for your amusement. Remember....hammers don't break parts. People break parts.
November 25, 2005 :: Fit the new VS-707 rib.
November 26, 2005 :: Finsihed riveting the VS. All that's left is the fiberglass tip. Don't know when I'll get to that.

Rudder

November 15, 2005 :: Start on the Rudder. Cut out tht stiffeners.
November 16, 2005 :: Preparred the rudder skins.
November 17, 2005 :: Drilled and dimpled the right rudder skin.
December 12, 2005 :: Dimpled the left skin and opened Ellen's birthday gifts
December 13, 2005 :: Primed the stiffeners
December 14, 2005 :: Back rivetted the stiffeners and built the frame
December 15, 2005 :: Fit counterbalance weight and dimpled the frame
December 16, 2005 :: Primed, riveted the frame, and put up the Christmas tree
December 17, 2005 :: Rivetted the skin except for the trailing edge
December 18, 2005 :: Prosealed the trailing edge
December 21, 2005 :: Rivetted the trailing edge. Rudder is DONE, except for one pesky leading edge rivet
January 9, 2006 :: Bought low profile rivet puller from Harbor Freight so I could pull the last leading edge rivet

Right Elevator

December 20, 2005 :: Cut out skin stiffeners
January 16, 2006 :: The Freshness Genie Cometh
January 21, 2006 :: Drilled Stifenners for right elevator
January 22, 2006 :: Riveted stiffeners. Started building substructure
January 26, 2006 :: Finished substructure
January 28, 2006 :: Priming and rivetting...worked on into tommorow
January 29, 2006 :: Finished right elevator. Started left elevator
March 25, 2006 :: Test fit the elevators
March 25, 2006 :: Test fit the elevators. Started countersinking the wing spar

Left Elevator

January 29, 2006 :: Finished right elevator. Started left elevator
February 4, 2006 :: Rivetted trim reinforcement plate nutplates. Primed stiffeners
February 5, 2006 :: Primed skin, rivetted stiffeners, bent trailing edge
February 11, 2006 :: Built the left elevator structure
February 12, 2006 :: Deburring, edge finishing etc... Picked up and restored Rosie's wing jig!
February 14, 2006 :: Where did all these animals come from???
February 18, 2006 :: Prepared the left elevator rear spar.
February 19, 2006 :: Primed and started rivetting left elevator. Also decided to mangle skin while I was at it.
February 25, 2006 :: Trim tab hell.
February 26, 2006 :: Finished the trim tab. Visit from Dave Cleveland (EAA49 president). Cracked open Wing kit
March 24, 2006 :: Bent the leading edge
March 25, 2006 :: Test fit the elevators. Started countersinking the wing spar

Wings

February 26, 2006 :: Finished the trim tab. Visit from Dave Cleveland (EAA49 president). Cracked open Wing kit
February 27, 2006 :: Started wing inventory. What a mess!!!
March 2, 2006 :: Finished wing inventory
March 10, 2006 :: Jommi's first snow :)
March 18, 2006 :: Chopped up the wing crates and modified Paul's wing jig
March 22, 2006 :: Officially declared the shop "tidy"
March 25, 2006 :: Test fit the elevators. Started countersinking the wing spar
March 26, 2006 :: Continue countersinking
March 27, 2006 :: Rivet the nutplates
March 28, 2006 :: More countersinking (other spar this time)
March 30, 2006 :: Uh...let's see....oh yeah. Countersinking
March 31, 2006 :: Tiedown bar
April 1, 2006 :: First flight!!! (just kidding...more tiedown work)
April 2, 2006 :: The other tie down. Got it right this time
April 9, 2006 :: Started the rear spar
April 16, 2006 :: More rear spar work
April 17, 2006 :: Happy birthday Ellen! Baked a cake.....
April 22, 2006 :: More rear spar work. Joe G. came to visit.
April 28, 2006 :: Got some new toys from Vans
April 29, 2006 :: Rib deburring starts....ugh
April 30, 2006 :: Flying with Dave. My house is down there somewhere...
May 5, 2006 :: Gretz pitot came

So long

May 5, 2006 :: The RV-7 project is officially brought to a close.

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