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RV-7 "After-Midnight Aircraft Factory"

Tdeman

Active Member
RV-6 (previously 7) "After-Midnight Aircraft Factory"

Hey guys, first time (aircraft) builder who finally has enough progress to show something off! Initial progress was slow due to buying/making tools as needed, however it has sped up recently. Most building time has been late in the evenings after class, work, and assignments, but I've been doing what I can this last (busy) semester!

IMG_6918 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

IMG_7168 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

IMG_7221 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

IMG_0040 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

IMG_7225 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

IMG_7227 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

IMG_7230 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

IMG_7233 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

Rudder is now ready for leading edge rolling, fiberglass, and a few rivets in hard to reach spots... That'll be waking the neighbors this week!
 
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Looking Good!

I started my -9A when the kids were little and the deal with the spouse was that it could not take time away from the kids. Most of the plane was built from 10pm-1am in the garage.

Important safety tip - set an alarm to go to bed! More than once I was having so much fun, I went in the house to find it was 3 am and almost time to get up for work!
 
Thanks for the positive feedback guys!

Is your rudder the -6 or the -8?
Looks like you are doing a fine job.
Cj

Good catch! The rudder being built is the RV-8 rudder (the one originally used on the RV-7). I'm planning on a bit of a hot-rod build, hence my choosing this particular rudder to use.
 
Work is looking good so far, great dimples and rivets. Just a question/thought though; it looks like you are priming the internal parts including the skins but I noticed that you have the red lettering bleeding through the primer. Normally the parts are cleaned of oils and dirt using an acetone soaked rag after scuffing (which also removes that red lettering) as primer adhesion in these areas would eventually most likely become compromised. Maybe the skins aren't primed and it's an illusion in the pic though, just wondering.
 
Work is looking good so far, great dimples and rivets. Just a question/thought though; it looks like you are priming the internal parts including the skins but I noticed that you have the red lettering bleeding through the primer. Normally the parts are cleaned of oils and dirt using an acetone soaked rag after scuffing (which also removes that red lettering) as primer adhesion in these areas would eventually most likely become compromised. Maybe the skins aren't primed and it's an illusion in the pic though, just wondering.

I've been scuffing lightly with scotchbrite, then using a damp rag, followed by a rubbing alcohol-soaked rag to remove debris/grease. The alcohol doesn't seem to cut the red lettering as hard as acetone would, however an extra pass or two does in fact remove it.
Perhaps I should switch from alcohol to acetone?
 
Taylor,
Quit wasting time with trivial stuff like building airplanes and get your school work done so you can get back to work.........

Looking good by the way, but it looks like a few of those skin stiffener rivets are under set ;)
 
I've been scuffing lightly with scotchbrite, then using a damp rag, followed by a rubbing alcohol-soaked rag to remove debris/grease. The alcohol doesn't seem to cut the red lettering as hard as acetone would, however an extra pass or two does in fact remove it.
Perhaps I should switch from alcohol to acetone?

I'm sure an alcohol wipe is good, I think the point is mainly to remove oil residue from anywhere on the skin. I use acetone as it is superior at this (and because that's what everyone else does):D I am surprised that alcohol doesn't remove the lettering, interesting...
 
Working in the kitchen - good job! I hope that continues to work well for you!

Our biggest regret rebuilding after the house fire 2 years ago is not putting the shop "off-campus" out in the yard. I can't run any tools or even accidentally drop a wrench without waking the wife sleeping overhead in our first-floor master. And the fiberglass dust and aluminum shavings that get tracked upstairs despite the doormat and the carpeted stairs drives us both crazy - mostly her. I make a lot of runs up and down the stairs in a typical work-session evening, so taking my shoes off as she suggests would gobble up a lot of work time, which as for many of us, must be carefully regulated and apportioned so as not to neglect wife and children.

Despite the downside to a backyard shop (long walk in the dark, need to run power and water, the big air conditioned and heated basement was already there needing only interior finish) I do wish I had done it - my useable work hours would be so much greater. There was the psychological perception that being right downstairs was not as far-removed from the family hearth when everyone else wanted to veg and watch TV, but that's an empty premise in retrospect.
 
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Working in the kitchen - good job! I hope that continues to work well for you!

Our biggest regret rebuilding after the house fire 2 years ago is not putting the shop "off-campus" out in the yard. I can't run any tools or even accidentally drop a wrench without waking the wife sleeping overhead in our first-floor master. And the fiberglass dust and aluminum shavings that get tracked upstairs despite the doormat and the carpeted stairs drives us both crazy - mostly her. I make a lot of runs up and down the stairs in a typical work-session evening, so taking my shoes off as she suggests would gobble up a lot of work time, which as for many of us, must be carefully regulated and apportioned so as not to neglect wife and children.

Despite the downside to a backyard shop (long walk in the dark, need to run power and water, the big air conditioned and heated basement was already there needing only interior finish) I do wish I had done it - my useable work hours would be so much greater. There was the psychological perception that being right downstairs was not as for removed from the family hearth when everyone else wanted to veg and watch TV, but that's an empty premise in retrospect.


Only work done in the house is the photowork! Everything else is either done in the hangar or the garage. (Except for leading edge rolling. I chose to wrestle those on the carpet where any sliding around of the rudder would not result in scratches on the skin.)
 
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Taylor,
Quit wasting time with trivial stuff like building airplanes and get your school work done so you can get back to work.........

Looking good by the way, but it looks like a few of those skin stiffener rivets are under set ;)

Thanks Scott!
One of my early rivets cracked on a 45* shear plane literally minutes after analyzing a similar compressive failure in class... I considered that build session "further research of in-class topics." :rolleyes:
 
Change of pace (and project)

While browsing the VAF classifieds in January (for one last time before pulling the trigger on a factory QB 7 Fuse), an RV-6 project popped up at a near-quick build stage. A few phone conversations and a week later, a good friend of mine and I made a morning of flying out to Orcas Island to check it out. After looking it over, I decided it was a project I wanted to take on and ideally, be the one to finish.

Checking out rv-6 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

Checking out rv-6 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

It was an early 90?s shipped RV-6 that had changed ownership a couple of times, had relatively good workmanship, and was out of all (the big) jigs.

Checking out rv-6 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

Checking out rv-6 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

After arranging a truck for pickup, checking the ferry schedule and regulations to the island, and getting the space ready at home, I finally made the trip to pick it up.

RV-6 Pickup by Taylor de Man, on Flickr



The shared garage at home accommodated an empennage build previously, but I decided this project was ready for the hangar. With the hangar just 5 minutes from the house, and right on my way home from work, I?m hoping the whole ?offsite build? doesn?t slow things down too much.

RV-6 Pickup by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

The first week of evenings was spent organizing and inventorying parts, as well as making the hangar a build-friendly (see: lights) environment.

IMG_7816 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

With all things in place, yesterday was the first day I was really able to get some work done on the project?
 
First day of work

While there are some things I’ll need to go back and correct (possibly the firewall recess for example), I had just recently put together the sub panel structure on my dad’s RV-9, and decided to tackle that first while it was fresh in my mind.


With no prepunched holes, it was a series of careful measurements, double-checking measurements, cutting/drilling, checking fit, adjusting, repeat. I first fit the sub panel for height, level, and straightness. Drilled through the two halves and side mounts so it could be cleco’d in and out of place easily.

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr


From there, marked and drilled the holes for the ribs on the firewall, then transferred the holes to the ribs themselves. after some measuring, the sub panel notches were cut to allow the ribs to pass through.

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

Some more lining things up, checking for straightness etc, and the angle brackets were made and drilled in place for the outboard ribs.

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

Still need to make the center rib bracing and roll-bar brace mount, but it felt like a productive first day, and was nice to see some progress made on the project.

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr
 
Well that acquisition just kicked you town the track by a year or four. Great workspace.
 
Top Skin and Canopy Decks

In order to finalize the position of the ribs and sub panel, I made a bunch of small angles that spanned the notches/had the cutouts required for the sub panel and stiffener.


With the assembly somewhat rigid, I felt comfortable working on the top skin...




The outside curves of the sub panel, and the longeron to top skin holes were the only ones that needed to be back drilled.


With the skin ready for trimming/deburring/dimpling, I set it aside to work on initial fitting of the canopy decks.


When it was finally time to clean up this evening, the canopy decks were both ready for final deburring/notch cleaning, and countersinking.

 
Drilling, drilling, drilling

RV-6 Update:

I?ve been taking advantage of the (rare) Oregon sunshine the past several weeks surfing and biking, but managing to get some RV-6 construction done in the evenings after work.

Did a bit with the baggage floor and forward seat pans...




Cut out some bulkhead stiffeners, and got the top J stringers temporarily riveted in place...



Began to fit rear aft top skin...







I ran out of edge distance with a few rivets near the forward end, so decided to remake the aft skin from an extra sheet of 2024.
Initially slightly bigger than the first one, the holes transferred in just a couple minutes.



The front aft-skin was much quicker and had better drill access.

Of course then I had to throw the forward top skin on, the seats in, and the baggage floor in to make it look like I?d made some real progress.









Plenty of drilling/hole layout to go, but such is the life of pre-pre-punched RV construction. I?m looking forward to fabricating less parts, and riveting more assemblies in the future!
 
RV-6 Update:
Plenty of drilling/hole layout to go, but such is the life of pre-pre-punched RV construction. I?m looking forward to fabricating less parts, and riveting more assemblies in the future!

Being a -7 builder I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of work it must be to get this thing drilled straight. That said I enjoy seeing your Fuse come together. Looking like an airplane already..
 
Being a -7 builder I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of work it must be to get this thing drilled straight. That said I enjoy seeing your Fuse come together. Looking like an airplane already..

I do however envy never having to worry about holes not lining up. :D

By the way your work looks really good!
 
Hey! How is the project coming along? Are you about to hang the engine? Just kidding, I get that a lot...

Looking very good.
 
Back to Building

It's getting too cold to surf, friends are heading back to university, and the mountain bike trails are still beat out from the summer of riding. That means it's time to get back on the build after several months of enjoying life outside the hangar.

First few items to take care of were small things I had been putting off a while, and a great chance to try out some of the new machine tools in the hangar.

My old (1994, non powder-coated) flap handle had some pretty deep corrosion pits on one of the arms. So I ground down the effected areas, and welded on a small patch of tube.

IMG_9197

Primed it, and then machined the slot for the manual flap-positioning mechanism, and also shortened the handle a few inches.

IMG_9227

I had already fit the flap bearing blocks on the outboard ends, but the middle bearing block sits part on the baggage floor, and part on the seat pan/tunnel. Rather than shim it with washers and have nutplates/fasteners out of plane with the surfaces, I machined a small set of wedges which got riveted to the tunnel cover, and to the seat rib, allowing the nutplates, bearing block, and bolt to all sit flat/vertical.

IMG_9230

I don't have a great vise for the mill, so starting with angle makes for easy work holding on small parts.

IMG_9237

(Ignore the too short, unset rivet in the above photo. It was used for aligning purposes only)

This should keep the fasteners happy.

IMG_9239

I wasn't happy with the previously made angle for the attach of the horizontal stab. Edge distance under the longerons was getting small, and these holes had to be further upsized for the AN-3 bolts.

The mill was already dirty, so I figured I might as well knock out a new one which could maintain every (thousandth) of an inch possible under there.

IMG_9215

IMG_9214


The original aft baggage side-panels did not fit real well (flanges would not sit flush with all mating surfaces), so I bent a new set on the brake which fit much better.

IMG_8904

Next is finalizing the custom seat pans (accommodating the 1" lowered seat ribs), and then some interior items might be going on permanently!

It's been a lot of making parts thus far, but one of these days the rivet gun is going to come out for more than a few whacks :rolleyes:

IMG_9240

Canopy frame and baggage bulkhead coming soon.
 
Being a -7 builder I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of work it must be to get this thing drilled straight. That said I enjoy seeing your Fuse come together. Looking like an airplane already..

Thanks! A lot of it just comes down to work holding and throwing on more clamps than you think you need.

I do however envy never having to worry about holes not lining up. :D

By the way your work looks really good!

Thanks Jereme, seeing your surge of progress was more than motivational to get out there again.

Lookin good, t-man. You get yourself wedged into in those seat frames and make airplane sounds yet? :)

Sure have! The more parts that get put in, the louder the noises seem to get.

Hey! How is the project coming along? Are you about to hang the engine? Just kidding, I get that a lot...

Looking very good.

Kent, your progress is also looking good, and an appreciated reminder to keep moving forward
 
Cold Progress

It?s been cold out in the hangar, but I?ve tried to keep the progress moving. I built a visqueen box to try and keep some heat in, and some moisture out, hence the change of backdrop! One benefit is it reflects much more light from the sides.

Finally tackled the seat pans. Things not quite being perfectly straight 90 degrees to each other in this area made it difficult to bend single sheets to fit everything for the lowered seat ribs? So a 3-piece seat pan was built because it was easy to make it register well on all surfaces.

IMG_9318

IMG_9351

Got the holes cut out in the forward seat pan as well for the control sticks. Also took a deep breath and did my spar carry through cutouts in the F-604. They came out real nice, with no gashes to the carry through.

IMG_9374

Of course with interior pieces finally coming together I had to throw them in to see how things were looking. Some fit and finish work is still required for a few interior panels, but overall most of the interior aluminum parts have been bent/shaped/drilled/fit.

IMG_9359

IMG_9512

Finally finish trimmed and zipped on the rear deck and aft tailcone skin.

IMG_9613

IMG_9638

And Lately I?ve moved on to some canopy fitting. Got the roll bar all fit, and slider tracks initially positioned. Traced canopy frame onto forward tailcone skin and made an initial skin trim just to allow it to sit in place.

Canopy frame tweaking will be next!

IMG_9679

IMG_9679
 
Keeping it going

I got a deal on a second hand engine mount, gear legs, and wheels that came off of a colleagues RV-6. As a bonus, it had wheel and leg fairings already installed. I decided to see how the mount lined up with the holes that were in my firewall already. The top two holes were dead on, but the bottom two were both more then half a hole off to the inside… Symmetrically, so there was no way to realign the mount to get it to work… Measured the mount, and it’s right to spec, so somehow, sometime before I got it, the firewall and weldements were miss drilled to 1/4”. Time for some surgery to get things right…

IMG_9895

Unfortunately hidden rivets meant the side skins on both sides had to get peeled back a ways.

IMG_9906

One side done, one side to go.

IMG_9909

With both sides out, I welded the holes shut in the weldements, and match-drilled/remade the underlying aluminum gussets.
I ground the front flush to minimize drill bit walking, and reprimed them. This saved me from having to realign and drill a new set of weldements (and the price of the weldements).

IMG_9911

Reinstalled the gussets/brackets, and match drilled the engine mount (with the top of the engine mount bolted in place). It came out real nice, with only a snowman in the stainless firewall. The other side is identical. Not a structural concern.

IMG_9963

With the mount holes drilled, I figured I better make sure everything would go together…

IMG_9962

Needless to say, this one called for some airplane noise :cool:

Pulled the plane outside for its first time since I acquired it, and spent the rest of the day cleaning/organizing the hangar. Then back inside for a tear down so I can strip the paint off the engine mount and weld on the SB gussets. It was nice having this thing look (more) like an airplane for the day.



By the way, for cutting the gear leg clearance notch in the firewall, here’s a trick that was real easy, and gave me a near perfect line to reference (allowing for uniform clearance around the leg).

Cut a strip of aluminum about 12” long, and 1.375” wide (same as the gear socket ID.) Then cut a big notch in the side of one end, allowing it to reach around the firewall flange. A nice point on the end lets you turn the piece in the socket, maintaining contact with the outside surface, allowing you to see/mark right were the minimum cut would be made. I set a few strips of masking tape tangent to the point at various positions, then removed the mount, and cut back to just past the tape. Perfect cut the first time around :D

IMG_9956
 
Keeping it moving

Built a new set of lightweight elevators, and decided to try the original ?small? rudder. Down the road I may throw my counterbalanced RV-8 Rudder/VS on there, but we?ll see how this one does for now!

Lots of measuring and adjusting, but eventually got the emp all lined up and drilled.






Its getting to the point where I?m ready to start closing up the inside of the fuselage. Before doing that and losing access, I decided to test fit the wings to check for any areas that may take rework while I still have access.



Wings in place also made for a good time to fit fuel lines to fuel selector (which has its bracket mounted to the spar rather than a fuselage bulkhead.)







I also designed my panel and wiring harness for the full airplane. With that in mind, I was able to drill holes for wire pass throughs and install all "wire run" hardware. More on that in the next post...
 
Progress looks great.

Check with Vans on the advisability of the small rudder. My understanding is that when test flying for spin recovery, the 7 would not reliably recover from a spin with the small rudder. Certainly not as fast as they wanted it too.
 
Progress looks great.

Check with Vans on the advisability of the small rudder. My understanding is that when test flying for spin recovery, the 7 would not reliably recover from a spin with the small rudder. Certainly not as fast as they wanted it too.

The rudder was redesigned for the -7, yes. But, I can state with complete confidence that in this particular case he's done the necessary checking and has 100% of the info needed to make a fully-informed and -aware decision for his RV-6 build. ;)

Nice work, T. Looking great! You're going to finish before me! And I need some new fuel lines bent... :)
 
Progress looks great.

Check with Vans on the advisability of the small rudder. My understanding is that when test flying for spin recovery, the 7 would not reliably recover from a spin with the small rudder. Certainly not as fast as they wanted it too.

Thanks!

One thing to note, is this is actually an RV-6. (Never figured out a good way to change the thread title after the project changed directions.) There are probably more examples of this rudder flying on this airplane than any other experimental aircraft out there (until those 7 builders catch up!) I don't plan to spin the aircraft intentionally.

After a few years of flying when/if I decide to go to a constant speed prop, I'll likely throw on the -8 rudder and VS. Until then, I'll enjoy the reduced weight that far aft, and the 5 knots higher cruise speed from the small rudder ;)
 
Thanks!

One thing to note, is this is actually an RV-6. (Never figured out a good way to change the thread title after the project changed directions.) There are probably more examples of this rudder flying on this airplane than any other experimental aircraft out there (until those 7 builders catch up!) I don't plan to spin the aircraft intentionally.

After a few years of flying when/if I decide to go to a constant speed prop, I'll likely throw on the -8 rudder and VS. Until then, I'll enjoy the reduced weight that far aft, and the 5 knots higher cruise speed from the small rudder ;)

I was wondering the same thing.... is this a -6 or a -7 project? Like you said, there?s a lot of short tails (basically RV-4 tails) flying on -6?s out there. I?m building a -7, however, I?m installing an 8 rudder.

I?ve read up on why Vans decided use the 9 rudder on the 7, but there sure are a lot of 6?s out there that appear to be flying just fine with -4 rudders. So this brings me to the question....are there any real (enough) differences in the 6 and 7 that would require/compel a person to build a 7 with the larger VS/rudder?

I understand that the larger flight surfaces will give you greater authority,...but how much more? There?s a huge difference in the size of a 6 (4) VS/rudder and a 7 (9) rudder. So, even though Van?s elected to go with the 9 rudder on the 7?s,....and I?m sure for good reason, I feel pretty confident that an 8 rudder will work just fine on my 7, especially with so many 4 VS/rudder?s flying just fine on 6?s.

It?ll be interesting to see how your short VS/rudder works out on your project...but I?m sure it?ll work out just fine.
 
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