Stjohn's RV-7

Finished drilling the VS, finished the elevator stop (primed, installed), but still need to finish riveting it to the aft deck.. Bolts are in and torqued though. Not a lot of actual metal work, but lots of measuring. When it says “DOUBLE CHECK EDGE DISTANCE” on the drawing itself, you can take that as a hint that it’s pretty important. So I was doing my best to make sure I knew exactly where I was putting the drill on both sides of the sandwich. With the elevators horns in the way, it’s really hard to judge anything vertical on F-712, so there was a lot of measuring, then some measuring, followed by more measuring, then the actual 1/4″ holes. It’s important to get this right because the load from the tailwheel spring gets transferred into the airframe via WD-409 and some of it gets picked up by the VS and transferred to the HS, which spreads it out into two big bars attached to F-711. After this was done, there was a lot of bolt torquing and application of torque seal, fiddly bits like that. Still on the to do list is the rudder stops, but I’ll do that after I get the pitch push tubes done and I can pull the HS off and actually work back there. As it is, I’m crammed in with the fridge and stove and every time I have to get to the workbench or the tool box, I have to duck under the stabilizer.
But after that, I started on the control column. This is my first beef with the quality of the stuff coming from Van’s. The powder coated stick assembly sucks. I wound up bending the tabs outward, then grinding off a good 1/16″ from the sides of the stick bearings and bushings. Now all the stuff fits. And fits well. But it still chaps my hindquarters that I had to do so much work on a part that’s supposed to be done, finito, that’s it. But I got the stick assembly together, and I got the forward elevator tube drilled, aft elevator tube cut to length. I wanted to get the tubes done, but that’s as far as I got. We’ve got Santa Ana conditions all week though, so it’s conceivable I can prime the tubes this week and get it rigged by Friday. For those of you outside Los Angeles, those are the hot winds from the desert carrying dirt and charged particles that make everyone in the city crazy and fakes the classic Southern Calfornia summer for a week or so. I havent’ actually installed the control column yet. I was thinking about cutting removable sections in the next two outboard ribs near the control column so I can drop it in without much contortion, but it seems to me the savings in work from ease of assembly of the control column is offset by having to fabricate the new cutouts and fiddle with the hardware. But as of now, I’m trapped in paint-land, and the worst kind fo paint-land, priming the inside of aluminum tube. And better yet, I have to do it in the morning before work. I’m going to try to make it happen with the spray can, so I can keep cleanup to a minimum.
Onward.