Matt’s RV7 Build Log

My friend Ryan and I took the train down to Portland and then picked up a Uhaul truck and drove it over to the factory. Barbara and co. were ready with a my QB wing crates. Technically I could have picked them up uncrated but I thought $300 is small price to avoid any dents during transport. After a great lunch at Pho Van outside Portland we drove back to my house. Fellow builder Jason met us there and the three of us unloaded the wings directly out of their crate on the truck and into the wing cradles I got from Dave Parsons. Thanks Dave! We unloaded the second box and stashed it in the garage. It’s pretty crowded now in my build space but it’s nice to be surrounded by so many airplane parts! Pics to come soon.

I decided to order a QB wing to save a little time on the project. It won’t be ready until April. In the meantime though I figured I could get started with some of the fuselage build. The weather was terrific in the Northwest for MLK day. With the day off from work, there was not a better day to visit Van’s and pick up my fuse kit. Van’s had my big box of parts and a 14′ tube with the longerons waiting for me. In about 30 seconds a forklift and 4 guys came out of nowhere and put said big box and long tube in my truck.

With all the extra time I had, I waited in front of the hanger to get my free ride. It turned out that the factory 7 was in the shop getting a new engine so I opted for a ride in the 8. Joe Blank was a great host and pilot. He took me for the all too familiar $50,000 ride (more like $30,000 ride at this point). It was great to get my hands on the stick and feel how smooth and precise an RV is compared to the Cessnas and Piper I’ve always flown.

After a total of 7 hours in the truck, I arrived home safely. My builder friend Jason came by a few minutes later and helped me get all the stuff into the garage. Exhausted, I only managed to pull out the inventory list from the crate before dozing off. 

Over the last few days I have transfered all my paper and electronic logs of the build over to this blog. It’ll be much easier to update and edit along the way. Plus I can share progress with other builders and maybe pass on some of the hard lessons I learn along the way.

Also today I went down and picked up Dave Parson’s old wing cradle at his hanger in Renton. The wings aren’t due till April but its never too early to carve some space out in the basement. It was nice to see his -7A up close. I learned some good intel. On some of his systems.

I might switch to putting the landing light in the wingtips instead of the duckworks setup. It looks like less of a hassle. His dual AFS EFIS setup is sweet but he did say it wasn’t flawless. Little glitches here and there during updates and such. That probably won’t dissuade me from installing an EFIS but I should do more research on each model and the support that comes with it.

Tasks Completed:      

• Cutaway excess lead on left elevator counterweight

Note: I ended up removing a bit more than I wanted but its within spec. Also there was a bubble exposed after cutting away the lead. I’ll probably end up filling with epoxy just to keep moisture out. 

Update (12.11.07): DO NOT remove material from the left E714 counterweight. I did not read the plans carefully enough. There is a note under the trim detail for the right counterweight that says this is for the ride side only! The extra lead on the left side is to counteract the additional weight created by the trim tab. 

Just returned from Oshkosh 07. My buddy from Valley Fliers Greg and I flew the Cherokee 180 there and back. Gerry and Dave flew in Gerry’s Mooney. Basically they were spotter the whole trip since they always ended up 30 to 60 minutes ahead of us.

I set a bunch of personal flying firsts:
–First Oshkosh
–First flight over the Cascades
–First flight over the Rockies
–Pretty much every leg beat my former longest XC flights

I am definately reinspired to work on the -7 after about a month off the project.