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Finished right elevator
Last night I finished the last four rivets on the inboard rib at the trailing edge, finished rolling the leading edges and blind riveted everything together. Here you can see the pre-bent leading edges vs the completed leading edges. The trick here to get enough of a bend that the rivets aren’t strained…
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Riveted right elevator
Tonight I stopped by Home Depot to buy a saw that I could use to finish cutting the lead counterweight. It was by far the most difficult task to date. 2 hours of cutting and filing. Once that was done, I refitted it to the elevator. I then put silicon caulk at the trailing edge…
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Began riveting elevator
Tonight I began riveting the right elevator. Started off by riveting the nutplates and reinforcement plates to the spar. Then I riveted the inboard rib. Then I riveted the elevator horn k. Here you can see the rivets for the rib to spar attachment and the factory heads of the elevator…
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Primed elevator skeleton
Tonight I spent some time surface prepping and priming all the elevator skeleton parts. Not too long but quality time priming everything. Here’s both the left and right skeleton parts prepped and primed. I also spent a significant amount of time trying to cut down the right elevator counterbalance lead weight. I still…
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Dimples
Today I spent a couple hours prepping all the holes for riveting the elevators. I started out with countersinking the required parts for flush rivets, the spars and the left elevator rear spar. I also countersunk the two counterweights. Here’s the rear spar countersunk. After I finished countersinking I dimpled the rest of the…
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Tech inspection
Tonight I had my local tech counselor Jason Beaver come checkout my build progress. He built his own RV-7 and knows a lot about what good quality looks like. He pointed out a few things that I need to take care of, but in the end everything is looking good and I am clear to…
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Bent trailing edge
Today I swung by Home Depot and picked up a 2×8 to build a bending brake. Here I’m bending the trailing edge on the right skin. The left skin didn’t require as much force but it took basically my whole weight pressing down on it. Here are both skins bent and clecoed…
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Elevator skeleton
Yesterday I put in a few hours on the skeleton. Here are all the parts laid out before edge finishing and deburring. The end ribs and counterbalance ribs on the left have already been fluted. In this photo, all the parts have been edge finished and deburred. Here is…
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Finished Stiffeners
Tonight I put a couple hours into finishing up he stiffeners. I was hesitant to bend the skins out of the way to back rivet the last rivet in the stiffeners, but in the end all of the rivets turned out perfect! Here you can see the rivets set in the stiffener. All…
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Elevator rivets
While prepping the elevators for riveting I ran out of tape to hold the rivets for back riveting. My personal preference is to prep both elevators before riveting, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Here you can see the rivets all taped in for the skin stiffeners. The left elevator is sitting in…
RV-7 N890GF 