Ron's RV7 Aircraft Factory


Welcome to my personal blog. This site was created as an informal description of my build progress in the construction of a Van's RV7 aircraft. A place where family/friends/builders/curiosity seekers can follow along. It is not intended to be a detailed description of every step in the building process as that would be much too time consuming. There are plenty of sites that do a great job in that arena, that is not my intention with this site. My intention is for this to be a philisophical/motivational/inspirational account of the emotional ups and downs of the life changing journey...and it will change your life. I hope this will give you an idea, through my eyes, of what its like to make this transformation. A note to other builders, I am not an expert so do not put your safety at risk by attempting anything you see on this site until you have done your own research, or send me an email so we can discuss it. Any deviations from the plans are not approved, nor endorsed by Van's Aircraft or myself. Thanks for visiting.



Friday, March 11, 2011

Leading Edge Lights HOBBS 507.0 hrs

As I mentioned, last night I went over and helped Brian Beatty with his RV7 project. We were riveting his top wing skins in place. We ended up using the 'back rivet' approach that many builder employ for the wing skins. It was my first time doing this so there was a small learning curve.

I have to admit the first few werent the best (sorry Brian), but after a few minutes we had a good rythm going and the quality improved. I was working the gun and it took me awhile to get the proper trigger burst down. It takes a little more force (a longer burst) to get a good shop head with this method.

Brian's project is looking good, he has most of his wing skins done. Dynon heated pitot, wiring, fuel tanks, leading edges are all complete. We had a few beers afterward and talked tools, Oshkosh, Sun 'n Fun and Reno, good stuff! He also showed me his SteinAir master wiring kit, which was pretty cool.


Smile Brian!!
 So, I have debated the leading edge light solution for some time. I like the Duckworks kits that Van's sells but quite honestly think they are too highly priced ($250/ea) for what they do. I wanted to find a good LED version that was cheaper, had the same performance, would run on less power (be cooler) and last longer. I also thought about doing a custom fiberglass mounting setup.

The ER tanks taught me something that many veterans have already told me. The more you deviate from the plans, the longer it will be until it flies. Right now I am kind of tired of deviation so I decided to just buy the Duckworks kits and be done with it.

I'm still not convinced they are the best solution, but they are easy to install, have a proven track record and quite frankly they wont be used very often during the life of the plane. I sometimes spend too much time worrying about things that dont warrant it...this is one of those times. There are more important things to worry about...pitot tubes, servo mounting brackets, nav/position lights, strobes, etc.

So, I called up Van's this morning and ordered two and had them put in my fuse kit which is getting ready to be shipped.
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1 comment:

  1. Bryan RaleyMarch 11, 2011 at 11:27 PM

    Nice to see sme other "Brians" out there building RVs! Congrats to both of you on that effort.

    As for my choice for lights, I won't really care too much who makes them. My focus will be on installing a pulse light system when the time comes. This system greatly improves the ability to be seen by others, and I will be using it during day or night situations in high density traffic areas. My bird will be military themed and possibly somewhat camo - so I will need to add some other safety methods so that other pilots see me.

    Oh, yeah, almost forgot - as far as your skin riveting experience goes - So you must have forgotten all that practice riveting we did together on my HS long long ago - hehe!

    Your aux tanks have also caught my attention.

    Glad to see your Dad is coming out.

    Still lurking on your site, when I am not in garage creating aluminum shavings that is!

    Bryan

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