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.



Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Wing Bolts HOBBS 2699.0 hrs

 
A while back I finalized my wing bolts and I'm just now posting about it. Really not much to it, but I wanted to mention a couple 'gotcha's'. First, this picture is not correct! The RV7 plans call for a washer on the head side of the bolt. Although, I'm really not sure its needed...I mean the bolts are in shear and the washer is not oversized to spread the load so I'm not sure why they are there? The only reason I can see is the softer alum coupled with the harder bolt. I talked to my RV8 friends, and they say they don't see that washer in their plans?? Go figure.
 
But, at the end of the day, when it comes to my wings, if the plans call for it...I'm gonna put 'em in. The only reason not to do it would be pure laziness...and don't kid yourself, I am lazy--but how tragic would it be to die from laziness??
 
Also, in the above pic, notice the two bolt heads that have torque seal on them...don't forget those. They go into nutplates. Van's issued an SB about a year ago as they found people were not realizing they needed to put those in...you do, they are important.

 
Once I added my washers to the head side, I torqued the larger bolts to 60 ft-lbs and the smaller ones to their respective torque value that escapes me now but its in the book. These puppies are ready to fly!

 
Lastly, way back when you did your fuselage center section, you should have built these spacers. I did, and luckily put them with all of my wing hardware for safekeeping. Don't forget to install these spacers and bolts now.

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