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, January 28, 2011

Wing Access Hole HOBBS 457.5 hrs

This week I went about the process of cutting an access hole into my leading edge. This hole will be for accessing the transfer pump and plumbing along with the ER tank access cover. Pretty straightforward, but again, I have been dragging my feet to do this. Not too excited about cutting into my leading edge...no room for error or its gonna cost me time and money. So I made sure I really thought it through before breaking out the dremel tool. Here are the results, I think it came out pretty good.


Layout and planning. The existing square access hole you see is for the stall warner which I wont be installing. I will have AOA in my plane, which is far superior to a stall warner. But, this hole will be needed since I have such a tight space to work with. Both holes will be utilized in the event I have to access this ER tank. I will duplicate this layout on the right wing later.


Using a unibit, drill holes for your radii in the corners first, remember no sharp inside corners. I used 1/2" to try and mimick the existing design


As mentioned previously, the dremel with a cutoff wheel is my tool of choice for cutting stuff like this. Works great. Be very careful with this cut, no slips, use both hands so that bugger doesnt get away from ya!


Created a back plate for the nutplates in much the same way



Access covers dimpled and cleco-ed in place for a test fit. This space is only a little over 2" wide--that was all I could squeeze out of this geometry. The strategy will be to use the stall warner access hole for reaching in with tools and the new, skinny hole is needed to remove the tank access cover. Make sense? Looks good on paper...probably be drilling out rivets to remove the entire leading edge assembly if I have any major problems with this tank! ;) How careful do you think I will be with sealing that tank?? This is a weak part of the design for sure...a removable tank would be ideal.

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