Last weekend?s RV-1 workday was incredibly productive, and a lot of components were not only removed but checked out, repaired, and re-installed. In fact, with a little cleaning to be done this week, re-assembly is really coming up quickly. Aside from replacing rusted hardware, most of the components are going to be re0usabel (except all that gosh-awful wiring which will just be replaced?).
One item that is probably airworthy but is in really terrible shape is the sheet metal belly pan. This runs from the firewall to the rear of the seat, forming the exhaust tunnel. It was built up out of a number of pieces of aluminum, and was unfortunately damaged in a landing accident a couple of years ago. I would characterize the repair as a ?field repair? ? pound flat enough to get the airplane home, but it?s really going to look awful in the museum. We all stood around looking at it saying ?boy, that really needs to be re-made??but no one felt that they had the tools or talents necessary to simply rebuild it. So we are looking for someone in this great wide RV world who would like to contribute their time and talent to the project!
This would be an easy sub-component to ship to someone as a pattern. The only caveat is that we need to have it back in a reasonable length of time ? say , a month or so ? to make sure that we stay on schedule. It is mostly sheet metal, with the ?bump? (it fairs the bottom of the stick that hangs below the belly) being made out of fiberglass. In looking at the metal pieces that make up the assembly, it appears that there are no compound curves. Paint can be taken care of back at ?Restoration Central?
This could be a project for a really good individual, a team of folks that want to put their signature on the RV-1, or a company that is part of the ?RV Family? and wants to help out. Please let me know with a PM if you would like to volunteer to tackle this task!
Paul
One item that is probably airworthy but is in really terrible shape is the sheet metal belly pan. This runs from the firewall to the rear of the seat, forming the exhaust tunnel. It was built up out of a number of pieces of aluminum, and was unfortunately damaged in a landing accident a couple of years ago. I would characterize the repair as a ?field repair? ? pound flat enough to get the airplane home, but it?s really going to look awful in the museum. We all stood around looking at it saying ?boy, that really needs to be re-made??but no one felt that they had the tools or talents necessary to simply rebuild it. So we are looking for someone in this great wide RV world who would like to contribute their time and talent to the project!
This would be an easy sub-component to ship to someone as a pattern. The only caveat is that we need to have it back in a reasonable length of time ? say , a month or so ? to make sure that we stay on schedule. It is mostly sheet metal, with the ?bump? (it fairs the bottom of the stick that hangs below the belly) being made out of fiberglass. In looking at the metal pieces that make up the assembly, it appears that there are no compound curves. Paint can be taken care of back at ?Restoration Central?
This could be a project for a really good individual, a team of folks that want to put their signature on the RV-1, or a company that is part of the ?RV Family? and wants to help out. Please let me know with a PM if you would like to volunteer to tackle this task!
Paul
