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Newbie in Wellington NZ

Kiwi7

Member
Hi All,
I've taken the plunge and ordered an empennage kit for a 7 and loads of tools to match. Surprisingly, it arrives next week - that is outstanding service from Vans and Fedex. As yet I'm undecided at which end to put the little wheel, but plenty of time for that!

I would appreciate knowing/catching up with people who have built a plane. I'm located in Porirua, New Zealand but frequently travel to Christchurch and Auckland so would be happy to meet there to talk about building etc.

Cheers
 
Congrats on taking the plunge!

I was building an RV-8 in Wellington, but I?m in Nelson now. Feel free to drop by if you?re down this way. My project is moving slowly, I?m about half way done. Lots of similarities between 7?s and 8?s.

Cheers,

Hugh (Ph 021 901 099)
 
Welcome to VAF, and Congratulations

Hi All,
I've taken the plunge and ordered an empennage kit for a 7 and loads of tools to match.

Cheers

Tony, welcome aboard the good ship VAF:D

Congrats on jumping in the deep end;)
 
It's here

The empennage kit has arrived - an excellent service from Vans and their excellent team. Ordered on Tuesday and it arrived the a week later. Not too shabby for travelling half way round the world.

Ive inventoried the kit and all is there. Just waiting on tools to arrive.
 
Welcome, VAF is a fantastic resource and provided assistance on many an occasion during my build. For Local support you need to also join SAA ( kiwi version of EAA). Most NZ RVers and CAA specific information is available through that resource
 
Thanks Patrick, I've joined the SAA and have had contact from our local representative. I also went to the recent Hawera dawn raid and met with some other RV builders/owners who all, not surprisingly, were top people and enthusiastic about their wonderful aircraft's. What I would really like is an experienced builder in my local area (Porirua) to lean on now an then!

Cheers

Tony
 
Progress

Well, I have completed the horizontal stabiliser, vertical stabiliser and now working on the rudder. It goes together very well. I just wish I had a pneumatic squeezer!!
 
Yes. A pneumatic is well worth the $$$$. I am planning a visit to NZ in 2020. May be able to schedule an ?inspection.? PM me your location and contact info.
 
Yep I think a pneumatic squeezer is about the best thing since sliced bread. Especially since the advent of the longeron yolk.
 
So your are south of equator, "down under". So does the propeller turn in the opposite direction in NZ? (or is that water circles down the drain opposite from Northern hemisphere) :D Good luck.
 
Down Under

yep and the electricity flows backwards!! The biggest disadvantage is the cost of postage of RV parts.
 
First oops

Well it had to happen - a stupid mistake. I went to mount the rudder to the tail and measured the bolts supplied in the kit. They were a ¼" so I happily drilled VS410,411 and 412 to ¼". Unfortunately the rod end bearings are only 3/16". I have asked vans if I can use bigger rod end bearings, but suspect I will be practicing drilling out lots of rivets and reinstalling new mounts! I also need to buy AN3-7A and 10A bolts as the ones that came with the kit I assume are AN4s. Darn.:(
 
Yup - replace

The good folk at vans gave me the news I was expecting - replace the hinge brackets as the edge distance is too small. They gave me two options - either drill out all the rear spar to skin rivets and replace the brackets or drill out the hinge bracket rivets and replace with cherry rivets - dilemma!
 
One of the more frustrating things in building an RV 7

reading, tons and tons of reading.

The 7 was a step better than the six for many things one expects in a kit.

However, i found i had to read and read again many of the plans and text before dong anything. After the first bit you do get more understanding of things such as AN descriptions but it is a task when you begin.

Hang in there we all had to order some "replacement parts" as we build on.

Love to travel to NZ someday many here in Canada love each time they go there.

Dave
 
All Done

Thanks Dave,

You know when you do something and have that "should I be doing this" feeling; its probably time to stop and reread/think. I had that feeling hence the gutted feeling. Never mind it is about learning and still great fun to be doing. I suspect by the third plane it will be perfect. Anyway I decided to go with the Cherrymax rivets and found the repair not too difficult - just costly due to the postage cost.

We're pretty happy to be living down this particular of the world but have to to Canada and was pretty impressed - despite it being November and cold!
 
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