Brian Beatty Visit HOBBS 420.0 hrs

This morning I had a nice visit from fellow builder Brian Beatty, he is also building an RV7 and is almost neck and neck with me in his build progress. I met him through the Colorado RV list and we hit it off immdediately. He showed up at 8:30 this morning and before I knew it...two hours of good ol' hangar talk had zipped by! He gave me some good ideas and tips that he is doing with his wings that I'm thinking of incorporating into mine. Hopefully this is the start of another great RV friendship. The people you meet in this hobby are second to none in my opinion.

After Brian left I got down to the business of building an airplane...thats what this is all about anyway isnt it? :)

Most of my efforts today were working on my ER tanks and left leading edge assembly. It was a good day...exciting and very fulfilling.

New parts arrived from Van's...always fun to get a box from Van's! ER tank parts and spare hardware to refill the parts bins.

Notice the two different versions of 8-32 nutplates...this explains my earlier mistake on the tank access covers...doh! Interesting to note.

ER tank layout work...lots of head scratching...planning...more head scratching...but you can see its starting to take shape. Progress is being made and it was fun to see.

A piece of paper cut to specific length to help with layout...to keep the ribs nice and straight/parallel before I match drill them to the skins.

For the close quarters work of match drilling the skins/ribs, I needed to purchase a right angle drill from Harbor Freight. $32..which was a little pricy for HF but it worked good. Its a tool I needed to buy anyway...handy to have in the tool box as the project goes on.