KitLog pro

Powered By Kitlog Pro v2.0

Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
' style=
Date:  4-16-2007
Number of Hours:  6.50
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Aileron construction

Today was the first of what I hope is five or six days of continuous work to get the wings finished up. I was scheduled to go to Sun 'n Fun, but when that plan changed, I decided to take vacation and build instead.

I started the session by dimpling the aileron skins with the c-frame dimpler. You'd think after two years I would have figured this out, but today, for the first time, I noticed how much nicer the dimple is with the c-frame tool versus the hand or pnuematic squeezer. The c-frame dimpler makes a very crisp, neat looking dimple, while the other tools tend to distort the metal a bit more...nothing too bad, but it just doesn't look as good...live and learn.

After dimpling, I back-riveted the stiffeners in place, then set about working on the spar and aileron bracket attach points. This amounts to quite a bit of "assemble, drill, disassemble, deburr, reassemble, drill, etc., etc., etc. There are holes to be drilled #12, #30, and #40, and there is some powder coated steel to drill, so it takes quite a bit of time to get not much done. All in all, the session was productive, but it will be nice to get the prep work done and build something!

The plans for the ailerons leave a lot to be desired in my opinion. I suppose by this point in the process, Van's assumes you know what to do, but there are a couple of places where the rivet callout is far from intuitive, and I probably spent at least 30 minutes just reading the builder's manual and plans to ensure I was doing it correctly.
' style=

Aileron stiffeners riveted in place

Aileron stiffeners riveted in place

' style=

Outboard aileron spar with rib in place

Outboard aileron spar with rib in place

' style=

Inboard aileron spar with plate nut riveted in place

Inboard aileron spar with plate nut riveted in place

' style=










Copyright © 2001-2024 Matronics. All Rights Reserved.