CONSTRUCTION PROFILES

Jim Maddox's RV-7A Like a lot of us Jim built models as a kid. Unlike a lot of us, who were dreaming of how a great paint job would breath the personality in the project. Jim was too impatient to get bogged down in the details, wanted to get on with the construction -- and the same personality is reflected in his RV project where he's again impatient with cosmetics and instead is getting on with construction. (Benton Holzwarth in the Home Wing May newsletter)

Debriefing your first flight
The exhilaration and excitement of the first flight is slowly subsiding with the completion of flight number. The months and years of work and preparation for this achievement have now been realized. It flies. Now what? (More from EAA 1410 and Jack Dueck )
Related links:
Hotline archive: Flight testing your RV
First flight reports (Van's Aircraft)

Flying stories
Spring break in an RV-6
My wife, Allison, is a school teacher and she gets a week off work for spring break. So we decided to break out our newly built RV6 and set off for a week-long vacation using the plane as our main choice of transportation. Destination: the desert Southwest. (Brad Canon in EAA 59 newsletter)

How to glue a slider canopy on a 9A
This is an article I found in an old edition of the Minnesota Wing's newsletter. It documents Pete Howell's process. I found it while researching this technique for a friend who's building an RV and figured it might be of assistance to you too. (RVator's Log)

Builder profile: From RCs to RVs
Steven Richardson got his private ticket nearly four years ago, but he had about two years flying right seat before that, so he is very familiar with the RVs. He has also built and flown many radio-controlled aircraft, and he continues to be involved with the RC aircraft. (EAA 242)

RV builder designing prototype glass panel
Looking back at how well the design has met the original goals, I would give myself high points. Placing all primary flight instrumentation on a single, large, 10.4" display has dramatically reduced my scan time, providing more time to look for traffic and manage the flight. It has been a very natural transition from lots of round instruments to a single color display. (Bill DeRouchey in EAA 119)
Related Link:
WTD Aviation

RV BBQ Update
This week I'm working on finding a big pole tent (40 by 40 anyway). While I'm working on that, why don't you work on registering. (BBQ page)

Twists in the canopy frame
We particular enjoy reading the Web site, Dignity, which documents the construction of an RV-7, partly because Richard Horan is the latest RV builder to be at approximately the same point in construction that we are. That's all changed, now, he's ahead. He just cut the canopy and in the process, found that he had a twist in his canopy frame, which allowed one side to sit slightly hire than the deck rail. Follow along on several pages, starting here, to see how it was handled.

Tank Tips
When I assembled my leak free fuel tanks, I proceeded exactly as I would at work. There is no compelling reason to wallow around in wet sealer needlessly! I would commonly apply the proseal to the mating surfaces of the parts (called fay-sealing), 100% cleco the assembly together, then allow it set up somewhere between tack dry and full cure. That's it. Walk away. Upon returning to work the next day or even better....after the weekend, I would then remove every second or third cleco from the assembly, wet install and shoot the rivets, then repeat the process over and over again until all the rivets were set. (RickGalati.com)