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Big Day....Wings Mated
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 3:03 pm
by bullojm1
I had anticipated the wings would take a while to mount to the fuselage. My dad and I were able to get the fuselage turned and both wings mounted in under an hour! I think it took me longer to figure out how to merge the following panoramic picture than it did to mate the wings! Woo Hoo!
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 4:17 pm
by cjensen
SWEET!! Looks awsome Mike!!! Congrats...that is a cool feeling!!
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 4:17 pm
by captain_john
Nice Mike!
You will be flying in no time!
CJ
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 5:00 pm
by Spike
Very nice!!
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 5:06 pm
by Brantel
Must be a good weekend for mating wings! I got mine on today as well!
Great job!
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 7:21 pm
by chappyd
Feels good, doesn't it
. I did mine 2 weekends ago. I love going downstairs to work on my "Airplane" now. Now I'm getting a lot of exercise because the tool I need is always on the other side of the plane, and with the ailerons on I can't get by on one side, lol.
Definitely cool.
Congrats
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:38 pm
by TomC
Way to go! Its amazing how it all comes together.
Good Luck!
Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:43 pm
by JohnR
Looks great! Looks like several people in the same area of the build. Fun!
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:12 am
by Wicked Stick
Nice going Mike !!! Wow, way to go Brantel too !!
Guess I didn't get the wing mounting memo C.J.
otherwise I would have had you help me do mine this weekend too
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:06 pm
by captain_john
NO!
Wing MOUNTING is different than wing MATING!
Both can be sometimes ugly to watch if not done correctly!
CJ
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 1:31 pm
by Wicked Stick
LOL, Agreed.
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:53 pm
by jim_geo
Looking good. Congrats that's a big step done.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:29 pm
by dons
Looking nice Mike, must be nice to have a shop big enough to be able to do that. Glad it went smoother than expected, that is always a great bonus.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:42 pm
by Speed3Guy
Yup, that's a big day! Congrats!
Guy
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:54 pm
by bullojm1
dons wrote:
.....must be nice to have a shop big enough to be able to do that.
Man, it is so close to not fitting. One of the wingtips is smack against the back wall, the other one I have about 6" to squeeze by it. What really sucks is to work on the left wing I need to duck under the aft fuselage. That gets REAL old after a while. Also, I realized all the tools I need for whatever task I am working on are always on the other side of the fuse!
But thanks for all the congratulations. I got the sweep out of both wings. That sucked because I needed to unbolt the wings to trim the fuselage part of the aft spar. The forward portion of the spar was interfering with the root wing. I got my incidence down to 0.0 degrees also.
Tonight is the "Big Drill" I am looking golden with edge distances. My only fret is to make sure the drill is perpendicular to the rear spar.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:10 pm
by dons
So, no wingtips as long as the door is closed
Good luck with the 'big drill', sounds like you have done some really good prep work. Shop size is all relative, I have to stack my belt sander/grinder/bandsaw because there just isn't enough floor space to have them sitting side by side. I am forever moving things around so I can make enough space to work on something, but at least I'm working on the project and that's what counts in my book.
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:40 pm
by BSwayze
Wow, Mike,
Way to go! Congratulations! I'm almost finished with my right fuel tank, and my fuse kit is on order. I don't think I'll get mine all in the shop like you did. How big is your shop? Mine is a "standard" 20 x 20 2-car garage. I may have to wait for nice weather and push it out on the driveway when that big day comes for me. But that's a ways off.
Bruce
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:22 pm
by bullojm1
BSwayze wrote:Wow, Mike,
Way to go! Congratulations! I'm almost finished with my right fuel tank, and my fuse kit is on order. I don't think I'll get mine all in the shop like you did. How big is your shop? Mine is a "standard" 20 x 20 2-car garage. I may have to wait for nice weather and push it out on the driveway when that big day comes for me. But that's a ways off.
Bruce
Bruce-
My garage is 22' long by 20' wide. What I did was make a cutout of my plane and garage out of graph paper. That made it clear as day how the plane needed to go. If you are interested, I do have a cutout of the RV-7 fuse that I could mail you. That would make it REAL easy for you to graph out your garage and see what works. If interested, email me at
mike@rvplane.com with your address.
Bigger Day...Rear spar drilled
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:53 pm
by bullojm1
The mating of the wings was WAY easier than drilling this one stinkin' hole. Getting the incidence angle and sweep took FOREVER to nail. Man, I was all stressed out drilling these, but in the end they came out GREAT. It is such a relief this is done. I guess the last challenge of the project is cutting the plastic hut!
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:31 pm
by Bob Barrett
Cutting the plastic hut is a challenge all right but there are several after that. Fitting the cowling, then fitting the baffeling, etc. are not fun jobs either.