RV-7 N890GF

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  • First passenger!

    Not much building has been going on the last couple weeks. After getting my license I’ve finally taken my first passenger up: my sister! It was a windy morning but it was a good first experience, it doesn’t get much bumpier than what we were flying in. She flew like a champ though, held her…

  • Busy week

    This week has been a very intense week, but I’ll start with the news that I passed my PPL checkride on Wednesday! It was a grueling 8 hour day including hour long flights to and from the examiners airport, and 2 hours for the checkride itself, 3 hours for the oral exam! But at the…

  • Fiberglass tips

    Tonight I spent about an hour on the vertical stab and rudder fiberglass tips.     Here’s the rudder tip riveted to the rudder, it will be filled and sanded to smooth out all the joints.     VS tip riveted on, the opening will be filled and the joint also filled and glassed to…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…