TitleGarrison

No bird ever flew nonstop from New York to Tokyo, or raced 15 miles high at triple the speed of sound.                                                                                                   
  But birds do something else.
  They do not conquer the air; they romance it.
.”

  Peter Garrison

HoursAndCounting

Jur's RV7 Aircraft Factory
2917 hours
and counting
Some decisions in life are bare of any obvious logic

 

Today was a very productive day ! Much better then expected after the slow rivetting last week. I had a week in Bremen for work so no progress during the last week.

We left off last week with the HS707 rivetted on the top and partly on the bottom side.

Before I started, drilled out 3 more rivets from last week where I found the round head damaged and one 426 in the center front spar where the shop head was poor. Drilled out without enlarging and replaced with some much nicer ones.

Then my buddy-builder and neighbour Jacques came by to help. I am afraid his wife is also close to being another "aircraft builder widow".

We first rivetted the HS707 completly to the skin, the little bump in the skin from last week is completly removed. I guess it was caused by he stress between rivetted and non rivetted.

You cleco all ribs in without the spar, the HS706 at the bottom and the HS708 behind the HS707 and attach both. This allows perfect allignment of the 707. Below is the finished hand bucked HS707. 

The you remove the HS708 again and cleclo the hole front spar in and add the HS708 again.



Next step is the 3 pop rivets which go in the center of the front spar that attaches the ribs. It is not possible to reach behind the bar anymore as 404 and 405 are already rivetted on the front spar.
Some people do not rivet the 404 because of the freaky thought that pop rivets are not as strong as set rivets. That is true and I won't deny that, but a Sonex for example is almost completly build out of pop rivets and I haven't heared of one falling out of the sky yet. So I decided to follow the plans and go with the 3 pop rivets here.

As you can see, the area to pull the rivets is quiet tight and I had to grind off a part of the head of my pop rivet tool (as many other builders have done before). It really helped. I have tree nice and flush pop rivets set near to a spar.

Then, you connect the 706 side rib to the front spar using 4/32" rivets.

I learned a little trick this week from a mail from Vans. You should put a piece of 'mylar'  tape on the front of the universal head rivet set on the gun. This protects the rivet head and you get way less smilies in the material.

After that, all center rivets are set from center to sides and back. This is where being 2 persons doing the job really pays off.
We switched positions in the beginning and found out that I am a better 'bucker' and Jacques is the better 'shooter'. The more you practice, the faster it goes. Below is a row of set AN426-3-3.5's



To do this job, you have to get in impossible positions. Jacques demonstrates here how that works.

After finishing off the left stabilisor, we continued working on the right side
Same story with the HS707. This went much smoother now.



The pop rivets on the right side



After rivetting also this side, you place in the rear spar and cleco it on.

And when all is finally rivetted, the result is what you see below. From here on, the hand squeezer will be used for the side rivets. But that's  work for tomorrow.

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Use the kit buttons in the top ribbon bar to see a chronological overview per sub section per kit. For the full chronological article list, see chronological build link in prelude menu here below. The easiest way to lookup information is by typing in some part numbers or keywords using the search option in the ribbon bar

 

Caution !

Some advice on reading my log for fellow builders !

In some articles, I made corrections at later date on the original article to rectify my own stupidities or faults. Read through the entire article if you intend to use my findings/experiences on your own project !

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Legal Mumbo-Jumbo

It’s possible (not likely) that I’m not as smart as I think I am. (Occasionally, I have moments when I know this to be true. Fortunately, the feeling passes quickly.) Although I have tried to make this information as accurate as I can, it is not only possible, but also quite likely, that erroneous and misguided information lurks within these pages. I cannot and do not warrant these pages to be error free and correct. Furthermore, I accept no liability for the use of this (mis)information. And, as many would say, your mileage may vary. If, after reading this, you are intent on proceeding, please be aware that the contents of this site are protected by copyright (copyright © 2011 and 2012). Nonetheless, you may copy this material subject to these two conditions: (1) any information used is for non-commercial purposes, and (2) the source of the material is properly credited. Of course, you may link to any page herein. At some articles, snippets of the plans from Vans are visible. These are for educational and illustrations purposes only and should never be used as plans for part construction or assembly as plans may have changed since the picture was taken and more important they are protected by Copyright by the Vans Aircraft Mothership company.

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