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Dave's RV-7A Builder's Log
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Date: 9-15-2012
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Number of Hours: 2.50
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Forward fuselage and cabin
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A cool and rainy day in Kansas--good weather to work in the hangar. Today was a day of disassembly, which is always a weird feeling since it seems like you are going backwards. But backwards is the only way you can go to get all of the parts primed and ready for riveting. After removing the forward top skin, I drilled out all of the subpanels and then removed them. Once again the forward cabin is open to the sky. After I remove the wings I will have easy access to the fuel lines, brake lines, etc, so this was a necessary step.
Once I was finished up front, I decided to study the plans and start riveting the various sections that have been left open for the last couple of years. I'm not sure why I didn't finish some of this long ago, but I hadn't, so I began with the skin along the side of the cabin. Pretty routine stuff at this point, but I always like riveting because it means something got finished. In this case, it was both side skins along the longerons. Nice to get rid of those clecos.
The next step was to start attaching the topmost pieces of the side rails which required riveting a canopy reinforcement plate in place with both AN426 and AN470 rivets. After countersinking along the top of the longeron, the three AN426 3-6 rivets went in, followed by the AN470 rivets that attach the plate to the fuselage bulkhead. Note to self--using a 3/32" set for 1/8" rivets results in drilling a couple of rivets out. Oops. That remedied, I finished the rest and called it a day.
I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to buck a couple of rivets at the forward edge of the canopy sill...there doesn't seem to be enough access, but I'll think of something. Wings should come off in the next week or two and finishing the interior will be the primary goal.
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Ready to rivet
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Finished rivets
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Finishing cabin side rails
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