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, December 23, 2011

Empennage Fairing HOBBS 1025.0 hrs

I decided to go with an after market empennage fairing from Fairings-etc. Although I am happy with the product, a valid argument could be made to just stick with the Van's version. In the old days, the Van's version was notorious for not fitting well...I think that has improved? I also wanted to wrap my empannage fairing around the bottom side for a more professional clean look. My version cost about $250 plus $60 in shipping...versus about $105 for the Van's version if I remember right? Anyhow...its your call. Here are some pics of the fairing as I get it fit to my fuse and emp.


What it looks like out of the box...pretty nice fit, but you have to do some trim to fit exercises.




I attached some box tape and then drew some 1"x1" squares for reference...with these I can get a symmetrical trim job. The tape will also help when I do the fill work to get a nice fit.




It comes in three pieces but I chose to bond the two lower pieces to the top so its all one piece.

Here you can see a flox and cloth layup in the transition attachment area. I will continue with trim work as well as adding filler so that it seals up all the gaps...its gonna be a tight fit so I don't have to use many fasteners. Stay tuned as I work this puppy into shape.

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