Wings

I've spent some time over the last few days to finish up the mounting of the wingtip. After I got the reinforcement strips glued on I drilled the holes out. Then I used the nutplates to mark the rivet holes and drilled those out. The next step was to rivet the nutplates to the wingtip. Then I drilled out the wing to accept the #6 screws and then dimpled the holes for flush mount. The last step was to mount the wingtip. Next step is to install the Nav lights and strobes in each wingtip and then to cut and fit the plexiglass cover for them.

4 hours

Wings - 148 hours

Empennage - 195 hours

Total hours on project: 343 hours

Wings

This past week I've returned to work on the RV-7. All I need to do to complete the wings was to attach the flap and aeileron which was done during the past week. Then today I started working on the wing tip and managed to get it cut to fit and then drilled the holes and cleco'd it to the wing. After that I was able to take it off and glue the reinforcing aluminum strips to the inside of the wing tip.

14 hours
Wings: 144 hrs
Empennage: 195 hrs
Total hours on project: 339 hrs

Back to work (Wings)

I've been off the job for a while now, and though I've not made progress on the RV-7, I've been very busy. I bought a Piper Comanche and since I had the Complex aircraft I decided to go for my Commercial Pilot License. Once I had that accomplished I went all out and upgraded the avionics in the airplane with a new panel, Aspen PFD, Garmin 430, and S-Tec 30 Autopilot. When I had the complete I decided to go all in and began study for my Certified Flight Instructor Ratings. It took about a year, but I now have my CFI, CFII, and MEI. Now I'm going to get busy on the RV again and try to finish it up in the next couple of years.