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RV-7 Construction Log
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Date:  6-1-2012
Number of Hours:  9.25
Manual Reference:  p 7-4
Brief Description:  Left Wing

Riveted rear spar to ribs. I skipped the step about taping over holes to be riveted in assembly with future parts, and paid the price: I had to remove 4 rivets to make room for the flap brace later. :O( The problem was that I had the wing laying on the bench upside down. Live and learn...

Next I cut out the left wing walk doubler, then edge deburred, drilled, and marked it for orientation. There is a mis-statement in the instructions which says the doubler should overhang the rear spar by "about an inch". Well, the plans call for it to be 26 inches long, which is the distance from the aft edge of the main spar flange and the aft edge of the rear spar flange. This leaves the doubler basically flush with the aft edge of the rear spar. I went on VAF to do a search and found that this is an OLD problem with the instructions. The consensus is that the plans dimension is correct, and you should basically ignore the "1 inch overhang" part. Some that cut to that dimension have had problems with the wing walk interfering with flap operation. The thread bringing up the problem is dated in 2005. You'd think that in 7 years that Vans could have fixed the instructions.~

Next I remounted the spar in the stands and rechecked for twist. All good. I then jacked up the skeleton to take out the sag, then clecoed the main skins (and the wing walk doubler) to the skeleton and final reamed ALL the holes. Way more quickly said than done; what a marathon job! Another note on the instructions here. After clecoing, they tell you to "start drilling in the upper middle of the panel and work down and out toward the edges, work out any slack as you go." I believe this to be a holdover from the non pre-punched kits, where you drill AND cleco as you go. With the pre-punched kits, there is no slack after you've clecoed the skin on. I did use this order to do the clecoing and it worked out great.

Rivets Today: 45
Rivets Total: 2751
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Left wing walk doubler cut out, edge deburred, drilled, and marked for orientation.

Left wing walk doubler cut out, edge deburred, drilled, and marked for orientation.

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Top left main skins clecoed in place and ready for final reaming.

Top left main skins clecoed in place and ready for final reaming.

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Botom left main skins clecoed in place and ready for final reaming.

Botom left main skins clecoed in place and ready for final reaming.

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