I installed the lower and upper verticle stabilizer and rudder tips. There is quite a bit of cutting required on the lower rudder tip. I took a lot of time laying out the cuts making sure I did not have to add back any fiberglass. And after cutting it with the band […]
Today I worked on the right elevator tip. I decided last night there had to be a better method than the one I used yesterday. So today I placed the tip in front of a heat lamp for about a half hour before I worked with it. That made it much more […]
Today I worked on the fiberglass tip of the left elevator. The fiberglass did not fit very well as it came from Van so I had to mix some microspheres to get the contour of the fiberglass to match the elevator itself. Quite a bit of fitting around the counterweight was necessary. […]
Dick helped me mount the elevators and set the rod end bearings at the proper length. It took three to four tries on each side. We found that a piece of #4 copper wire cut to about 8 inches and bent in an L shape was a help in getting the bearings to […]
The new trim tab skins arrived yesterday and I spend today building a new one. Although the elevator trim tab is one of the smallest sub assembiles on the RV7A, it is probably the most difficult to build so far. But this time it turned our perfect! The extra skin I ordered […]
Using the experience gained on the rudder, Dick and I rolled the leading edges of both the left and right elevators. We then enclosed the leading edges using the specified blind rivets. We also installed rod end bearings.
I had purchased the electric elevator trim option with the kit. Today I installed the servo in the left elevator. It is a very tight fit, lots of filing and fitting. I made a temporary electrical hook-up to a 9 volt battery and set the trim linkage so I have equal movement […]
With Dick’s help, I rolled the leading edge of the rudder. Dick brought over a piece of 1 inch water pipe which we taped to the rudder skin. We then clamped vice grip pliers to the pipe and rolled the skin to the approximate radius of the leading edge. After both […]
Last night I decided to order new trim tab skin from Van. In fact I ordered two skins since they are only about $12.00 each. So the trim tab will have to wait a couple of days.
Dick came over and we rivetd the trailing edge of the rudder. We have […]
I built two wooden weges to use to bend the trim tab “tabs”. The left tab came out pretty good. Don’t like the looks of the right one. The right side upper tab was too long and after it was bent it had to be filed down to match the lower […]