Matt's RV-7 Project

I spent pretty much the whole day unpacking the finish kit and inventorying the contents. If anyone is planning to come visit me and Mary anytime in the near future, we hope you enjoy the guest bedroom's new "canopy" bed. (I crack myself up)

I finally got the crate emptied out save for the bags and bags of leftover packing material. Then I spent the next couple hours breaking the crate apart (easy) and removing the zillion little staples that were left sticking out (tedious). The wood is piled up under my deck for the moment – I need to call the city and have them come haul it away.

Nothing was missing, as far as I can tell, although I did have one duplicated parts bag. Hooray, free "assorted bolts and washers", according to the invoice sheet.

I had to get yet another drawer thingy to hold all the small parts. Shown here is about 75% of the drawer capacity in my garage – not seen are at least two more 50-drawer units that have more stuff in them. There are a lot of little pieces in one of these contraptions…

Today I got an instrument rating and the finish kit for my RV-7. It was a pretty good day.

I found eight cans of the precious paint at the Wal-Mart on 135th in Olathe. This is apparently the only place in my area that reliably carries it, because I've checked every other hardware store and Wal-Mart around here. At least I should have enough to paint most of what I need, and I know where to get it now if I run out in the future. I also cancelled my online order since the stuff from Wally World was two bucks less per can. Whew, at least that frustration is over with.

P.S. I actually called Rustoleum to see if the hardware store guy who claimed that my paint was discontinued was right or not – the customer service lady just laughed and said "oh no, we're still making tons of it." So nuts to you, Westlake hardware on 23rd in Lawrence.

I bet I've been to at least twenty hardware stores and Wal-marts in three different counties over the last couple weeks, including at least ten today, looking for paint for the interior of the airplane. I know exactly what I want – Rustoleum #7221, also known as Dark Pewter Textured – but I couldn't find it anywhere. This despite the fact that when I went to buy a test can a couple months ago, it was all over the place. At one store I visited, the guy told me he thought that color had been discontinued by the manufacturer, which would suck mightily since I already paind for an expensive interior that's supposed to match it.

So after wasting the entire day looking fruitlessly for the stupid paint, I went home and looked for it on the internets. I found one place that supposedly has it for sale, and placed a hundred-dollar order for a dozen cans. With my luck, they'll call me on Monday to tell me that they no longer have any to sell me, but until then I guess I'll work on other stuff.

I did a bunch of deburring of subpanel parts tonight, which wasn't worth a photo.

I called the EAA today to sign up for their builder's insurance program – you know, so in case my house burns down or gets knocked over by a tornado, I don't completely lose my considerable investment. All was well and good until the guy asked me for my N-number. I was all, "Que? It's just a pile of aluminum, not an airplane, and it doesn't have an N-number." No good, he said, you have to reserve a number before you can get insurance.

So, I spent the ten bucks and reserved a number online. I let Mary suggest a few numbers, and picked the one I thought was easiest to pronounce over the radio. Voila:

The digits are a meaningful date for us, both our initials are MB (how handy), and it's easy to say "niner mike bravo" in a hurry. As a bonus, it even has a 7 in it, as in RV-7.

I also registered a new domain name – as soon as the DNS information propagates, you should be able to access this site via www.n709mb.com.