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.



Monday, June 21, 2010

Wing Kit Arrives HOBBS 200.0 hrs

Today the wing kit arrived. Unloading was a non-event since the driver helped me out, although he isnt required to. We just carried the crates into the garage and used the dolly sparingly. Turns out his daughter is a helicopter pilot in the US Navy so he was interested in the building process and asking questions about the project. One of the crates had some shipping damage, so he stuck around while I opened it up to check the contents...no internal damage! whew... Nice guy, after a little converstation, I thanked him for his help and he was on his way.

Then the fun began. For someone who is passionate about aviation, this has to be the best thing outside of Christmas! Unpacking the crates is really a blast. Inventory is not quite as fun but still interesting to see all the little parts and start creating a mental picture of where they all go in the assembly. The gold anodized center section and the main wing spars are really beautiful to the eyes of an Engineer, nice craftmanship to be sure.

I tore into the crates and the inventory like a hungry wolf taking down his prey...and 3 hrs later I was almost entirely done with  upacking, storage and inventory. I just have some misc hardware bags to go through to finish up. Thats pretty quick for a guy working alone...goes to show how anxious I have been to get this kit. Here are some pics from day one of the wing kit inventory...


The main spar crate...


As always with Van's, professionally packed...


My flop tube for fuel intake during inverted flight...




My 'deluxe' fuel caps, they are pretty nice...are they worth the $150 cost delta?? hmm, not sure, but I'm still happy I got 'em. I will get them engraved later.


This is the gold anodized center spar, the two main wing spars will attach to this. It will sit right under the seats in the fuselage.

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