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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date: 2-14-2016
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Number of Hours: 3.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: VHF antenna installation
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The first of two sessions devoted to fabricating and installing the VHF antennas involved finishing up the right side doubler. Yesterday I had completed the basic work by measuring and drilling all of the holes, today I started by drilling the doubler to the fuselage. Any time I drill holes in something I’ve completed, I generally take a few minutes and think about it…holes in aluminum can’t be undone. After my requisite pause, I got out the drill and set about match drilling all of the holes. There was nothing very complicated about the process, and when I was finished, I clecoed the doubler in place and test fitted the antenna…it looked pretty good!
The dimpling process was a total pain as there was obviously no way to get a squeezer on the rivet holes. This meant I’d have to use the pop rivet dimple system, a method that produces acceptable dimples by squeezing two dies together with a nail as the mandrel. This process involves the following steps: 1) put nail through “male” die and insert into rivet hole, 2) secure assembly in place to allow riveter to move to other side of the rivet hole, 3) climb up on the ladder and place “female” die onto protruding nail, 4) pull dies together with pop rivet tool until mandrel breaks and dimple is set, 5) evaluate dimple for suitability and repeat process as necessary. All of this for 26 holes—a lot of climbing up and down. By the end of the session I had finished the right side and was ready to start the left.
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Right doubler ready for riveting
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Test fit of right antenna
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