Empennage

Donna and I went to a sheet metal class over the weekend, May 27th & 28th, to learn the skills that we need to build our RV-7. We attended the class that is put on by George Orndorff at his place in Justin, Texas. The class provided two days of 'hands on' experience and introduced us to the metal working skills needed to build an aluminum aircraft.

The first day we covered the basic sheet metal working techniques - cutting, drilling, countersinking and riveting as well as plans reading, hole cutting and more. The second day we put these new skills to use by building a section of a control surface. The control surface was the RV Training Project from Van's Aircraft. This project covers just about all the skills a person needs during actual RV kit construction.

George was extremely helpful and the small class size allowed the individual attention that promotes a fast learning curve. All our questions were answered and the time spent covering the tools and how to use them really boosted my confidence in my ability to build this airplane. George kept us busy during the course and entertained us as well with the many stories he told.

In his shop we got to see many RV's in various stages of completion. We saw a RV-6 that had just had the engine mounted, as well as two RV-7's, a RV-9A, and a RV-10 that were being worked on. We also got a look at George and Becki's RV-7A and a RV-6A in thier hangar that are absolutely georgous.

All in all it was a very good and productive weekend for Donna and I. We left Ft. Worth to come home on Monday. We stopped by to visit with Red and Gayla Clour on the way. Red is building a RV-8 and we have shared the expense of some tools. He let me take the DRDT-2 dimpler and the pnuematic squeezer with me. I hope to be able to make a lot of progress in this next week before I go back to work in Africa.