F The firewall riveting is finally completed.  There was a delay caused by me countersinking the wrong side of one of the gussets.  Oh well, everyone makes a mistake or two.  Some day I need to post a picture of all the parts I have destroyed just to let fellow builders know they are not alone.  (12/8/04)

E While waiting the remainder of the engine parts to arrive I've been busy fitting the fuselage bulkheads together.  (1/22/05)

E Here is the aft fuselage clecoed together for the first time.  I am starting to wonder if this thing will fit in my basement or will I have to kick my wife's car out of the garage?  Next up is fitting all the "J" channels, match drilling, deburring, dimpling, priming and finally riveting.  (1/29/05)

F There I was, going crazy on the fuselage, matching drilling the stringers when I drilled into the nail of my ring finger.  That sort of put a dampener on my match drilling.  No harm done but when I removed the F-779 part I found I miss drilled the hole.  The replacement part arrived this morning and it took me three hours just to cleco it into place.  Who would have ever thought it would take that long?  Not a big deal as I moved ahead with fabricating all sorts of other parts, started assembling my engine, finished carpeting a cat tree, started working on the rudder peddles, and modified the wing cradle so there would be a place to hang the flaps.  In short, I found lots of ways to keep myself busy.  (2/19/05)

E The replacement F-779 arrived and was matched drilled to the rest of the fuselage.  Because this will be a trail dragger and this part will get both flight loads and tail wheel loads I opted to increase the rivets to #30's.  This is just for piece of mind and has nothing to do with Van's directions or anything else.  The lower aft side skins are about 1/3 riveted in place.  The rest of the rivets will have to wait until the tail wheel spring bracket returns from the powder coater.  That should be in three more days.  (3/8/05)

F What a difference having a few days off to work on the project makes.  Here is the aft fuselage 1/2 riveted.  Once the lovely wife returns from visiting friends we will finish riveting it up.  Either that or I have to wait for her father's next visit.  (3/9/05)

E Today I trial fitted and match drilled the seat pan, baggage compartment floor, and belly skin.  They are face down on the table with some shot bags holding it in place.  This seemed to work out fairly well.  Of course, I'm going to need some help moving it around.  (3/10/05)

F Here is something you don't see on very many RV-9's, a tail-wheel.  The last few days have been a blitz of drilling, deburring, dimpling, and riveting.  This week I have riveted up part of the aft tail cone, as much of it as I could reach by myself.  This weekend the in-laws are coming to visit because my Father-in-law wants a riveting fix.  When I got married last year I didn't realize I was getting a helper-in-law as part of the deal.  Trust me, I'm not complaining.  (3/15/05)

E My Father-in-Law came for the weekend to help work on the airplane and it was much appreciated.  We finished riveting the bottom rivets on the tail cone and the center section.  Then we dug the longerons out and bent them.  No problem bending them, just followed the directions, took our time, and made a few passes with the hammer.  Having someone there to put a little pressure on the aluminum angle while I hit it with the dead blow hammer made the process go very smoothly,  That and going over it four times with the hammer made a big difference.  In other words, don't try to bend it on the first pass with the hammer.  Unlike dimpling, many small blows is better than one big one.  (3/20/05)

F Here I am, all proud that the longerons are in and the side skins are in place.  Boy I am making progress!  Well almost.  Notice how the longerons stick out in front of the side skins.  This is wrong!  I missed the step where you notch the top of the longeron so they can run all the way to the very aft bulkhead.  Lucky for me I had not drilled anything yet.  All I had to do was remove the longeron, notch it, put it back in place, cleco the side skins back on and start match drilling it.  (4/4/05)

E After much work the fuselage is ready for match drilling of the longerons.  Bending the side skins where the center section and tail cone join wasn't difficult, just follow the directions and it will turn out great.  Shortly after this picture was taken I match drilled the longerons, that took some time and now I get to look forward to countersinking all those holes.  (4/5/05)

F I've been traveling a good bit for work and haven't had the time I would like to work on the plane.  I guess all builders could complain they can't find the time to work on their plane, even if they are putting in eight hours a day.  Here Nora is match drilling some of the stiffeners on the forward fuselage .  (4/30/05)

E The fuselage is coming together.  These side skins are the last parts that needed to get painted before I assemble it for what I hope is the last time.  There is nothing difficult in the fuselage construction.  I actually think the wings were more difficult.  One thing to watch, the tooling holes in the seat ribs do not line up with the holes in the side skins where the pitot line runs.  I suggest drilling all these holes after the skins are in place.  (6/14/05)

F Torque thought he would give me a hand driving rivets but he realized that without an opposed thumb he wasn't going to be much help.  (6/17/05)

E Randy Utsey, RV-7 builder, came by to help me rivet the fuselage together.  It is amazing how fast two experienced riveters can move.  (6/20/05)

F Radomier Zaric, RV-7A builder, jumped in and helped me finish riveting the lower 1/2 of the fuselage.  After three hours of pounding rivets we rolled the "canoe" over.  I still have a good bit of work to do before I can go flying but now I feel like I have an airplane.  (6/26/05)

E Every once in a while you make a mistake and think it is the end of the world.  I have found this is not necessarily the case.  For some reason I missed the step about match drilling the 721 parts to the longerons before riveting up the fuselage.  Luckly I did use the 721's to make sure the longeron curves were correct.  I had all kinds of concerns about how I was going to get these things to fit and match drill them.  The simplest solution was to position the 721's at the right spot along the longeron and then starting at the front of the 721, drill a hole and cleco it.  Keep moving aft while pulling the 721 and longer parts together.  I used a simple spring clamp to line everything up.  Just drill & cleco one hole at a time and it will work out great.  That said, I do recommend following the directions as is a great stress reducer.   (6/28/05)

F Boy, once I turned the fuselage over I thought I was almost done.  The truth is, the real work has just begun.  Here I am match drilling the side caps to vertical main spar flange.  Don't ask me how I missed doing this earlier because I couldn't find it mentioned in the plans anywhere.  The problem was that I had already drilled the arm rest to the flange and that hole was now hidden behind the flange cap.  Check out the Things to consider page for how I solved this problem. (7/15/05)

E After much work, the instrument panel sub frame was finally fitted.  This is not the Van's panel but one from Affordable Panels.  Once this is in place I'll have to start working on how to install the Throttle Quadrant I bought.  No Cessna style venire throttle for my -9.  (7/17/05)

F After dinner Torque and I went back to the basement aircraft factory and clecoed the top skins in place.  Tomorrow I will start match drilling them and cut the top two "J" channels to fit.  I just hope I don't match drill my finger when working on the "J" channels like I did when match drilling them for the lower fuselage.  (7/17/05)

E The top skins are all match drilled, deburred, and dimpled.  Next up is priming.  I've been working on a bunch of other small parts so when I get ready to paint there will be a good number of items to treat and paint.  Number one on that list is the access door for the ELT.  Figuring out where to place the ELT took about two weeks of fitting, measuring, and just plain thinking.  This location is under the baggage compartment floor on the right side of the aircraft.  A door will cover the hole and will be held shut by four screws/plate nuts.  There were two reasons I placed the ELT here rather than the more common place behind the baggage compartment.  1st, I wanted it closer to the center of gravity because of the small engine I'm going to install up front and 2nd, in the event of an accident I wanted to make sure it was accessible with the fewest number of screws requiring removal. (8/9/05)

F The baggage compartment skins are complete and ready for final installation.  Here are pictures of the ELT door open and closed.  (8/13/05)

E The seats are installed for the first time.  I could climb in and start making airplanes noises but I'm afraid if I did, I would never stop playing and actually complete the airplane!  If you enlarge the picture you will notice some piano hinges just in front of the seats.  To move the the seats forward you simply slide out the hinge pins, move the seat up to the desired location and reinstall the pins.  What a simple, lightweight, and strong set up.  (8/13/05)

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