Matt's RV-7 Project

Here's what 12 bucks plus shipping gets you from McMaster-Carr. Actually, their site was a breeze to navigate and their shipping was both prompt and reasonable, so I can't really complain.

Unfortunately, this drill bushing was just a few thousands too big to fit through the elevator bearing. I was going to schmooze some time on my friend's metal lathe, but then I figured out that hand drill + belt sander = poor man's lathe. I just chucked the bushing in the drill and held it up to the belt sander, and turned it down into a sort of bullet shape that fit snugly and centered-ly in the elevator bearing. Then I chucked it in the drill press and turned it against some emery cloth to smooth out the surface again so it wouldn't get stuck.

The first elevator gets put on the stabilizer with Avery's temporary pins, and it's held in trail by clamps on the counterweight arm. Then the drill bushing gets inserted in the center bearing, and the pilot hole is drilled right through.

Then the pilot hole is enlarged in steps up to a C size drill, and then reamed to exactly 0.250 inches.

Hooray, a bolt through the bearing fits right through the new hole and the elevator pivots perfectly.

The above process is repeated for the other elevator, and now the center pivot is complete.

Now all I have left to do on the tail (other than fiberglass, which I've decided to save until later so I can do all the obnoxious itchy stuff at once) is tighten up the rod end bearings on the elevators, install and tighten the corresponding ones on the rudder, and play with the trim tab linkage a bit.

Tonight I finished installing the elevator trim servo motor. I had to cut the pushrod to length and install the clevises, and then with the help of a drill battery… it's alive!

This is the first part of the airplane able to move under its own power. I'm stoked. (do the kids still say "stoked"?)

I had to enlarge the aft end of the notch to clear the pushrod when the trim tab is in its full up position (full nose down trim). I may need to file it out a little more later, but this is okay for right now.

Here's a shot of the attach hardware, just to remind myself that I did install the cotter pins.

The in-laws were in town so I didn't do any work on Friday or Saturday, but today I was able to spend the afternoon out in the garage, building airplanes and enjoying the nice weather. I rolled the leading edge of the right elevator as best I could, and since I figured I'd have a similar puckering problem on this elevator I went ahead and doubled up on the rivets for the middle and outboard sections while I still had it clecoed together:

That made it turn out pretty nice. I think the problem with the elevators is that the skin is too stiff and the spar is too narrow at the tip to get a nice bend out there; I probably also could have used a smaller-diameter broomstick and gotten better results. It turned out acceptably though:

Then I hauled the horizontal stabilizer out of storage, and went to work getting the elevator hinges set up:

I used Avery's temporary alignment pins to hold the elevators in place while I worked – way easier than putting bolts in and out. I must have had the elevators on and off a half dozen times today, and these pins made the job a lot simpler. I also used Avery's rod end bearing installation tool to (surprise) install the rod end bearings, although if I'd been feeling industrious I could have made my own out of PVC. I don't actually remember ordering the Avery one, but I found it in my toolbox so I must have been planning ahead during some previous tool-buying spree. Or maybe it was the tool fairy…?

Behold the newest addition to our country's military arsenal – the F/A-RV-7 Stealth Attack Geo!

Here is another shot, this time with the wings folded for supersonic cruising flight!

The elevator counterbalance arms were way too long to fit the cutout in the stabilizer skin – I think Van's must have changed the elevator design at some point without changing the HS to match, because I've read about this problem happening to a lot of builders.

I trimmed about ³/₄" and now everything fits together. This will be cleaned up and deburred after I take the elevators off again.

I also had to notch the lower flange of the HS spar, per the plans, to clear the elevator horns and allow enough down-elevator travel.

Here's the HS with both elevators temporarily attached. This thing is huge – over eight feet wide. Sweet.

I had a little time after work tonight, so I finished the leading edge of the left elevator. Here it is, completed, sitting on the floor in the unused bedroom we call the "airplane room":

I didn't like the way the skins were puckered up between the rivets in some places, so I doubled the number of rivets in the leading edge along the middle and outboard sections. That made the skins lie down and look nice.

This weekend I went nuts on the left elevator and got it 95% completed.

One of the first things I did with the new elevator skin was to cut off the little flaps that Van's wants you to fold down to close out the trim tab area. Instead, I made this little stub rib out of scrap 0.020" to close out that area. I elected to orient it with flanges facing inboard so I could squeeze some of the rivets. If I had it to do over again, I would stagger the rivets on the upper and lower surfaces so they wouldn't line up quite so exactly – that might have let me get the squeezer in there to squeeze one more of them. As it was, I ended up using three AD3's and three MK-319-BS pop rivets to hold this guy in place. It worked out very well and looks great in the finished version.

Here the left elevator parts are resting after being primed (trim servo brackets, interior rivet lines within the skin) or getting some primer touch-up (ribs, spars, etc). The old stiffeners got riveted to the new skin with nary an oops rivet to be found.

Here the left elevator skeleton is complete and ready to be installed in its permanent home. Right after I took this picture I put the required blobs of blue RTV at the trailing edge of the four full-length stiffeners.

Here's a dorky shot of me looking tired, standing next to an almost completed left elevator. Gotta prove to the feds that I built this thing myself.

The only things left to do to the left elevator are to rivet on the trim tab hinge and affix the counterweight permanently in place… oh, and roll the leading edge… and, install the fiberglass tip… and…

In other news, two guys from work have each ordered an RV Training Kit for themselves, and are going to eventually bring them to my little aircraft factory for a hands-on tour of basic sheet metal construction. It should be a fun time. Too bad it will cost them each about $70k before they're finished. Muahahaha!