It has wings!

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:31 am

As promised, here's a bunch of pics of what we accomplished last night!

My dad came over a bit early to help get the wings off the walls. We put them top-side down on the carpet, because I still needed to squeeze a few rivets (22 to be exact

) at the inboard rib to bottom skin.

Then the rest of the crew showed up...Rob Johnson, RV-7 finishing, Larry Enyeart, RV-7/7A Wings, and Terry Wendling, RV-7A finishing...and we got to work installing these things.

Left side on-

I forgot to mark the screw hole locations for the fairing, so that wing came right back off to mark. I marked the right side-

And the right wing was installed.

One thing that is important to note...and it's a common problem...there is one rivet that WILL interfere with the rear spar. I drilled them out, and will replace them with Cherry Max rivets after countersinking. Here is a detail of each side of what I'm talking about. The arrow points to where the universal rivet head was.

I have plenty of edge distance for drilling the rear spar. This was the one spot I was worried about, because it only works if several things were built properly a long time ago. Another thing to note here is the bottom fuselage skin. MAKE SURE someone is underneath the wing (happened to be me) when it is being inserted. It's easy to catch this skin with the wing, and will mangle it up in no time. Slow and easy is the only way to install these.

Here's the crew that helped me with this last night! Yeah, it was HOT!!

And one proud RV-7 builder.

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:46 am

Looks great Chad! Great Job! Whoo Hooo!!!!

1:1_Scale · Post by **1:1_Scale** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:39 am

NICE!

rv8or · Post by **rv8or** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:47 am

AWESOME!!

dons · Post by **dons** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:51 pm

Another big step Chad, congrats

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:49 pm

Chad, Cool!

Tell me more about that rear spar/rivet interference issue.

Did you trim the rear spar enough as described in the plans? Maybe just trimming it a bit more would be a better choice?

Should I dimple those rivets now?

What is the scoop?

CJ

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:01 pm

Too late for me to make another choice, since they are already drilled out, and there is no way to get a solid rivet back in there without drilling the entire floor skins out.

The rear spars are trimmed EXACTLY to plans. I made sure of that WAAAAAAY back when I did it because I read it somewhere that they need to be PERFECT down the road. Well, I still had both of the rear spars run in to that rivet head. Rob filed his down, and that is a very acceptable method, however, he expressed that he might drill his out, and pop some Cherry's in there anyway. That way, there is no chance of it rubbing down the road.

If I were you, I would dimple those holes, and put in a flush rivet there. That way, you don't even need to worry about it. There are so many rivets in that location, that using a Cherry Max to fill the hole is fine with me.

Brantel · Post by **Brantel** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:26 pm

Chad,

I see you say that you have hardware store bolts in there. Were they a pain to get in? What if any kind of drift pin did you use to get the holes to align?

Working on my spar carry thru bulkhead and drilling the sides on where it tells you to use the close tolerance bolts makes me appreciate and a little scared that it will be a nightmare to get these into the entire unit.

RV7Factory · Post by **RV7Factory** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:39 pm

Wow, your dad looks like he doing his best Paul Tuttle Sr (American Chopper)... although he's not fooling me.

Congrats!

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:41 pm

DON'T USE THE NAS BOLTS to fit the wings for the first time. I used drift pins similar to these to line everything up...

Then I used the 7/16" hardware bolts to push the pins back out, and the bolts filled the hole. All lubed up, and it slid right in...

Sorry, I made myself laugh when I typed that...

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:10 pm

RV7Factory wrote:Wow, your dad looks like he doing his best Paul Tuttle Sr (American Chopper)... although he's not fooling me.

Congrats!

I think he was a little miffed that it took slightly longer than I told him. He had wedding photo stuff to do last night, and didn't get to it because of me...

Oh well, he's over it today.

Thanks!

Post by **bullojm1** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:56 pm

Chad-

Thanks for pointing out the rivet above the rear spar that should be flush. I am doing the final prep for my fuselage now before I put it back together, so this came at the perfect time. Just be sure to keep ahead of me for the rest of the build by a month or two so I don't have to worry about finding these things out firsthand!

cjensen · Post by **cjensen** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:01 pm

bullojm1 wrote:Just be sure to keep ahead of me for the rest of the build by a month or two so I don't have to worry about finding these things out firsthand!

I'll do my best!

TomC · Post by **TomC** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:57 pm

Chad,

You had me worried when I saw the first two pictures. I thought you were installing the wings backwards! Congratulations! It really starts to look like a plane now.

Good Luck!

Post by **Spike** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:29 pm

Niiiiice dude!!

aparchment · Post by **aparchment** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 11:30 pm

Fantastic Chad. Man do I have to get cracking!

Wicked Stick · Post by **Wicked Stick** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:12 am

Way to go Chad, and great job of posting the pictures and pointing out the minor pitfalls. Kudos to also include the pictures of the drift pins and hardware, I'm sure it will help alot of us who have yet to get there.

N200PF · Post by **N200PF** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 7:26 pm

NICE WORK CHAD!!! It's getting very plane like!

RivetBangers.com

It has wings!

It has wings!

Wow!