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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date:  7-23-2017
Number of Hours:  10.00
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Finishing rudder, elevators & other misc fuselage

Today was a marathon session at the hangar with a focus on finishing up work on the empennage and knocking out a few other misc odds and ends. I started by priming the tips for the elevators, horizontal stab, rudder & vertical stab. While these were drying, I put a stand under the tail and a 2”x8” in the aft fuselage to allow me to climb in and attach the shoulder harness cables. Access to this area was tight enough when I was riveting the skins on, but with the flap drive installed, it’s even worse. I decided that while I was at it, I might as well finish up the other aft fuselage tasks, so over the course of the day I also installed the ELT and ADS-B antennas. Other than attaching the flight control hardware at the bellcrank, everything in the aft fuselage is done.

With the control tips primed, I spent a couple of hours match drilling, countersinking and riveting with CS4-4 blind rivets to get all of them installed. Done with that, I started working on all of the rudder and elevator finish work to include: installing the rudder cable guide tube clamps, rudder stops, and all of the associated hardware for the rudder cables and flight control attach points. There were the usual challenges of limited access, awkward working angles, dropped nuts and washers, etc, but I got it all done. The rudder cable guide tube clamps were especially challenging due to the fact that it involved installing Adel clamps inside the aft fuselage. As I’ve detailed before, the spring steel in these clamps can launch a nut across the hangar when they pop loose, so getting them installed was even more of a chore since I was doing everything by feel.

By the end of the day I had completed everything in the aft fuselage except for the empennage fairing installation. Next weekend I should be able to get the rest of the exterior work done—and probably get into interior installation. I’m ready to predict that first engine start will come sometime in August and first flight is a definite possibility in September.
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Rudder cable and rudder stop

Rudder cable and rudder stop

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Finished empennage without fairing installed

Finished empennage without fairing installed

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Looks pretty much like an airplane now

Looks pretty much like an airplane now

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