RV-7 N890GF

The last month has seen quite a lot of progress on lots of small items. Every trip to the hangar involves more fiberglass and epoxy sanding and finishing. The fiberglass tips for the whole tail are now complete, barring the horizontal and vertical stabilizer tips being primed. I also completed the lower rudder fairing, which needed to be modified because I’m not installing a rear tail light.

I also bolted and torqued all the elevator and rudder bolts, as well the elevator pushrod and rudder cables.

While waiting for epoxy to cure I spent some time installing the wheel pant brackets to the landing gear. I had been putting it off as I didn’t have a method to jack the airplane up. I also filled the brake system with fluid and bled the brakes until clear bubble-free fluid came out of the return line.

I also began the process of making the canopy fairing. Its the final step to complete the canopy, and I waited to finish the tail fiberglass parts in order to build up confidence and process to ensure a smooth execution. I began by masking the window and the frame to make a 2 inch gap for the fairing.

I then mixed up some epoxy and flox to make a thick filler, and then spread it in the gap between the window the canopy frame and then covered it in the peel-ply.

I came back the next day and removed the peel-ply and then started sanding the surface. There were quite a lot of pits from the initial pass, so I mixed up a second batch and filled the gaps.

After sanding again I still had a couple spots that needed filling so I did a third pass of the filler.

After one final round of sanding I’ll lay up the fiberglass and build the actual fairing. But that’s for next time.