Getting Started

Getting Started 

26 Hours   Total Hours 26

  Let me say that the dates are a little squirrely on the first few posts. I am trying to catch up and keep the post date relative to my activity's. I'm not a good record keeper but I am going to learn.
  I am committed to this project now because I have written a check to Bob Evans for a significant amount.

 To begin, this is what I have now.....

 And this is what I want when I'm finished!

  Long ways to go, huh?

  I had built a barn/hanger/shop a few years before with a project like this in mind. My wife, Nancy, and I did all the work our self along with a little help from our young nephews. I love it! Who wouldn't! It has a 42x40 shop and 42x20 living area. Fully insulated and heated. Notice the 38' hydraulic door in the pics. I built the door for about 1800$ with hydraulic plans I found on the internet. My son, Brian the engineer, helped me with the design and it works great! Best part is, the door to Paw Paw's Hanger, is 15 steps out of the back door of my house!

   I am very proud of the work I did building the hanger/barn and it took about two years to get it the way we wanted! If I can build that, surely I can build an airplane? Right? Okay, I'll quit bragging about my hanger and get back to the project. I start digging through all the dusty parts of my project and I wonder what all is missing?

I know what your thinking! Wow, must be nice to start with all these built up parts, but it will be a journey for me as I have to figure out how it all goes together! I will have to go through each step in the building process that has been completed and make sure they have been done right. When I pull back on that stick for the first time, I dont want to worry about how someone else put something together. Also, I plan to make some major changes in the project. I will convert it to a taildragger or a RV7 instead of a 7A. This will require a new engine mount, tail wheel parts, and other modifications I have yet to research. I have owned a PA 22-20 in the past along with the Kolb and most of my logged hrs flying has been in a tail wheel aircraft. Also the taildragger will be better suited for my grass runway down in the field. And my dream airplane in my mind has always been a tail dragger!

  Up to this point, I feel like I have spent 500 hrs reading and researching for this project! Vans Airforce http://www.vansairforce.net/ has been absolutely invaluable to me! The experienced builders there have never hesitated to answer any questions I posted. I can search any topic and BOOM, there is a world of information about it! I honestly dont know how people built Vans airplanes before VAF and the internet. I have gathered hundreds of pictures of the building process, RV7's, paint schemes, panels, interiors, and you name it! I have read Mike Bullock's RV-7 and  Chad Jensen's RV-7 Build Log and Project Construction Site  at least 5 or 6 times each and learn new stuff every time  go there. I have about 10 additional build sites in my favorites list that I scroll through any time I have a little time. I admire all the time and effort these guys spent keeping and sharing such wonderful build logs for anyone to look at. I am a member of the EAA and have watched all the videos at the EAA hints for home builders site. There are so many resources available! Unfortunately, I have found, sometimes I have walk away from the computer and just start working on the plane to get anything done!
   Most builders begin their builds with a couple of years of slow building kits. I started my project at about the midway point so I immediately had to start making big decisions on  items such as avionics, panel, wiring, engine, interior and seats, and all the little extras that you can put in one of these little planes. All this involved TONS of research! I have kept a excel sheet on projected costs and actual costs and the thing I didn't count on is all the extra little things you can add to your plane.
   My project at this point had very little documentation. To register my plane as a amateur built with the FAA, I have to prove that 51% of the work has been done by amateurs. The last thing I want is to spend 2-3 years finishing this airplane only to find out I cant register it the way I want to. The RV 7 quick build kit like mine requires you to build the tail and that helps satisfy the 51% rule. My tail had been built already and I wanted to build something to get some experience before I dove into this thing. I also needed some tools. Tools for aircraft construction like rivet guns and bucking bars. I read Vans Airforce three times a day and I saw an add in the classified section from a guy in North Dakota who had a partially built 7 emmpanage (tail) and a set of tools for sale for about the same price as a new set of tools.  I called him about the tools. He said a guy from Sweetwater Texas, about 90 miles from me, wanted the tail. I got the Sweetwater guys number and called him. When all was said and done,  I sold my completed RV7 tail to the very happy Sweetwater guy, and bought the tools and partially completed tail from Dakota guy! This accomplished three things, I got a set of tools for very little cost, I got a set of complete preview plans and building instructions with the tail, and now I could build a little bit finishing the tail and gain some experience. Dakota guy also  had good documentation. I will need this documentation along with mine to provide to the FAA DAR inspector when I get my Flight Worthy Certification. 
   So after all that horse trading I spread everything out and start evaluating what I have.

   

   The first thing I did was sort out all the rivets and AN bolts I had. This was a learning experience because I had little experience with AN hardware. I had to sort out rivets that had been compiled together.

    After getting everything organized and my shop rearranged, I began cleaning up all my parts. They had been gathering dust for several years so it was a mess. I also organized all the full page plans that came with the project. They were wadded up and in a mess so I dusted them out and ironed them flat.

  I had originally thought that I would need to order a complete set of new plans from Vans but after comparing all the full size plans I got from the original project to the preview plans in the Dakota guys tail kit, I was very surprised that I had all the plans and then some! I built a easel for the plans to make it easier to move them around where I could look and work at the same time.

  I spent quit some time looking at each page and trying to get acquainted with reading drawings and just get my head wrapped around this thing. I can tell you, at times I worry that I have bit off more than I can chew!

  At this point I am pretty sure the hardware I got with my project had been cannibalized to the point of no return so I go over the original packing list and try to figure out all the rivets, nuts, and bolts that I will need. Below is one 1 of 18 pages of parts that came with the original kit!

  At first I was going to order all this stuff from Vans but I realized I would probably have to take out a loan to pay for it! Also when I called Vans and talked to one of the girls about ordering all the hardware that came with the kit, she kinda acted like I had lost my mind!
  At this point I began to realize what a great company Vans Aircraft is! In no way did they discourage me from buying a partially completed kit! This kinda surprised me in a way. They were very helpful in dealing with a slew of newbie questions that I threw at them. Of coarse this made me feel good about building an RV.
  So I scratched the idea of buying a complete set of hardware all at once and began studying all the plans and making notes of what size and type rivets, nutplates, screws, nyloc nuts, bolts, washers, cotter pins, and anything else I could find on the plans that I needed. I checked what I had acquired so far and started building my first order to Aircraft Spruce. One of my pet peeves is to get knee deep in putting something together and not having the hardware to do it! I spent about 2 days on Aircraft Spruces website learning about AN hardware and getting my order together. By the time my order came in, I had already found lots of more things I needed and so I added UPS and a large number for shipping to my cost estimate list! I have learned so much already and although its a little discouraging trying to get started, it has been FUN!