Brief Description: RV-1 Visit & Assembling the Trim Bellcrank
After work today, we had a great time going to see the RV-1 in person! This is the plane that started it all. Richard VanGrunsven (Van) of Van's Aircraft began his career as a kitplane designer with a wing conversion kit for the Stitts Playboy. He called this the RV-1. While the wing kit for the Stitts wasn't popular, Van's first clean-sheet design, the RV-3 (which was similar) was hige success and started the revolution that led to the very kit we are building. This year at Airventure, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the RV-1 will be inducted into the EAA Aviation Museum. We consider ourselves very lucky to have seen, and even SAT IN the RV-1 before it gets put behind the velvet ropes in the museum. I even took Amelia into the cockpit for a photo opp. She really enjoyed playing with the switches on the panel and looking out through the canopy at mom. What a treat! Afterward, I match-drilled and then assembled the trim bellcrank. This assembly holds the trim motor and transfers its movement through the trim cables to the trim tabs themselves, controlling pitch.
