Mark,
Speaking of this gap, I didn't see any evidence in your pictures of the problem I had, but it's something you can easily check for, using a straightedge. I found that the trailing edges of my HS were all turned up, increasing the gap. It looks bad, and would have increased the drag. You can see it in these pics. Here, I laid a straightedge across the trailing edge, and you can clearly see the upturned trailing edge of the skin, on the left:
It's very apparent in this picture, too:
Fortunately, the fix was relatively easy. I have more pics and explain how I fixed it on this log page:
http://www.europa.com/~swayze/RV-7A/Fus ... 00605.html